• Sitting Adjourned Due to Lack of Quorum

ISLAMABAD, February 21, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab discussed arrest of Sindh Assembly’s Speaker through points of order consuming almost half of the proceeding’s time on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

According to sub-rule 1 of Rule 209 of the Rules of Procedure of Punjab Assembly, a Point of order shall relate to the interpretation or enforcement of Assembly rules or such Articles of the Constitution as regulate the business of the Assembly and shall raise a question which is within the cognizance of the Speaker. However, the members discussed arrest of the Speaker Sindh Assembly by NAB authorities through points of order having no link to the interpretation or enforcement of Assembly rules.

Following are key observations of the House proceeding during second sitting of the seventh session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 47 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1244 hours against the scheduled time of 1130 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 55 minutes in the absence of Speaker while a member from Panel of Chairpersons chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 80 MPAs (22%) were present at the outset and 46 (12%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Only the parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceeding.
• As many as four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Home Department responded to eight out of 11 starred questions appearing on the agenda while three questions were disposed of due to absence of movers. The lawmakers asked 14 supplementary questions as well.
• The Minister for Law responded to a PML-N lawmaker’s Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding murder of a citizen in Faisalabad.
• A CAN related to law and order situation was disposed of due to the absence of mover while another notice was not taken up.
• The Minister for Law responded to a PTI lawmaker’s Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding increase in crime incidents in Rawalpindi from July 2018 to January 2019.
• The House deferred two AMs due to lack of response from the Ministries of Industries, Commerce and Investment and Schools Education.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised 26 Points of Order consuming 46 percent (an hour and 17 minutes) of the proceeding which were mostly related to the arrest of Sindh Assembly’s Speaker by NAB authorities in Islamabad.
• The opposition walked out from the proceeding for eight minutes against arrest of Speaker Sindh Assembly.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1526 hours following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. Upon counting, the quorum was found incomplete and the House was adjourned to meet again on February 22, 2019 (Friday) at 0900 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Punjab Assembly’s website.
• 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.