Punjab Assembly Fails to Take up Legislative Business due to Lack of Quorum

ISLAMABAD, March 9, 2020: The Punjab Assembly could not consider most of its legislative business on Monday due to early adjournment of sitting after lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the 20^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 41 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for an hour and one minute due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1647 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over 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 32 (9%) MPAs were present at the outset and 84 (23%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leader was present during the sitting.
• As many as six out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Provincial Minister for Law presented the Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighborhood Councils (Amendment) Ordinance 2020.
• Three other government bills were also introduced in the House which were referred to the relevant committees. These bills were Baba Guru Nanak University Nankana Sahib Bill 2020, the Code of Criminal procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2020 and Kohsar University, Murree Bill 2020.
• The House could not consider four other government bills appearing on the agenda for passage due to lack of quorum. These bills were the Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions (Reforms) Bill 2019; the Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill 2019; the Punjab Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Amendment) Bill 2019 and the Companies Profits (Workers’ Participation) (Amendment) Bill 2019.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up six out of 31 starred questions while four questions were deferred and two were dropped. In addition, the lawmakers asked 18 supplementary questions.
• Provincial Minister for Law responded to two Call Attention Notices related to law and order incidents in Chakwal and Sheikhupura

 Order and Institutionalization

• As many as three lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for 14 minutes.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1917 hours following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting and the House was adjourned to meet again on March 10, 2020 (Tuesday) at 1500 hours.

Transparency

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

The 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

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