Punjab Assembly Fails to Transact Agenda due to Opposition’s Protest

  • Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, November 11, 2020: The Punjab Assembly could not address its agenda on Wednesday due to the protest by opposition lawmakers who were agitating against the reply of Minister for Law regarding demands of farmers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of 26th session:

 Members’ Participation

  • The House met for 39 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1626 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Deputy Speaker was not present.
  • The Leaders of the House and Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 14 (4%) MPAs were present at the outset and 107 (29%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • Parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
  • Four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

 Output

  • The House neither considered six legislative proposals nor observed the question hour.

 Order and Institutionalization

  • As many as seven lawmakers spoke on points of order for 26 minutes.
  • The opposition lawmakers protested for eight minutes during reply of Provincial Minister for Law about the demands of farmers who recently staged sit-in Lahore.
  • The Session was adjourned for an indefinite period.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ is 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