ISLAMABAD, December 21, 2020: The Punjab Assembly adopted five resolutions to extend as many Ordinances amid protest by the Opposition lawmakers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the first sitting of the 27^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 32 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1617 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 17 MPAs (5%) were present at the outset and 137 (37%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Only PPPP’s parliamentary leader was present.
• As many as four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House adopted five resolutions to extend as many Ordinances for ninety days including the Sugar Factories (Control) (Amendment) Ordinance 2020; the Sugar Factories (Control) (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2020; the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2020; the Companies Profits (Workers’ Participation) (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 and the Punjab Overseas Pakistanis Commission Ordinance 2020.
• The Minister for Law also laid seven Ordinances in the House which were the Sugar Factories (Control) (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2020; the Punjab Board of Technical Education (Amendment) Ordinance 2020; the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2020; the Companies Profits (Workers’ Participation) (Amendment) Ordinance 2020; Punjab Overseas Pakistanis Commission Ordinance 2020; the Punjab Hotels and Restaurants (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 and the Punjab Tourist Guides (Amendment) Ordinance 2020.
• The House witnessed introduction of four bills in the House which were referred to the relevant committees for further deliberations. These bills were the South Punjab Institute of Science and Technology, Dera Ghazi Khan Bill 2020; the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill 2020; the Punjab Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Punjab Privatization Board (Repeal) Bill 2020.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took five out of 10 starred questions while the lawmakers also asked 12 supplementary questions.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Four lawmakers spoke on points of order for 20 minutes.
• The lawmakers protested for eight minutes against the passage of resolutions related to extension of five Ordinances.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 22, 2020 (Tuesday) at 1400 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Punjab Assembly’s website.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on Punjab Assembly’s website.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by SANGAT Development Foundation – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted