• Deputy Speaker, Leaders of the House and the Opposition, All Parliamentary Leaders Remain Absent

ISLAMABAD, March 17, 2017: Starting an hour and 38 minutes behind the schedule, the Friday’s sitting of the Punjab Assembly was adjourned due to lack of quorum, as the Deputy Speaker, Leaders of the House and the Opposition as well as all Parliamentary leaders remained absent, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

The sitting began with a meagre number of 10 lawmakers (3%) present at the start and 75 (20%) at the time of adjournment.

Following are key observations of the proceedings of 10^th sitting of Punjab Assembly’s 27^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 51 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1038 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• Deputy Speaker, Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Ten MPAs (3%) were present at the outset and 75 (20%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Five minority members were present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as five out of 10 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while the remaining three questions were disposed of and two others were deferred. The lawmakers also asked 20 Supplementary Questions.
• Five Adjournment Motions of PTI, PML-N and PML lawmakers were deferred.
• The House could not hold general discussion on food security due to early adjournment of the sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on eight Points of Order consuming as many minutes of the proceedings.
• An Independent lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1141 hours, following which the Speaker ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. Even then, the quorum was not found in order and the sitting was suspended for 38 minutes. On resumption of the sitting at 1225 hours, the quorum was again pointed out and found to be incomplete, leaving the House adjourned to meet again on Monday.
• No protests/walkouts/boycotts were witnessed during the entire sitting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on Punjab Assembly’s website.

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