ISLAMABAD, July 12, 2021: The Punjab Assembly was adjourned without addressing its regular business due to lack of quorum on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the second sitting of 34th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for 34 minutes.
• The sitting started at 02:16 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker was not present.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as nine MPAs (three percent) were present at the outset and four (one percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the proceedings.
• One out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

 Output

• The House did not consider four government bills including the Punjab Hotels and Restaurants (Amendment) Bill 2020, the Punjab Tourist Guides (Amendment) Bill 2020, the King Edward Medical University, Lahore (Amendment) Bill 2021 and the Punjab Commission for Regularization of Irregular Housing Schemes Bill 2021.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 2:30 pm following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes and subsequently suspended the proceedings for 15 minutes. Upon counting at 02:50 pm, the quorum was found incomplete and the House was adjourned to meeting again on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

 Transparency

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