ISLAMABAD, July 13, 2021: The Punjab Assembly passed a private member’s bill and left 63 percent of its agenda unaddressed, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet on Tuesday.

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

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 13 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:27 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 27 MPAs (seven percent) were present at the outset and 113 (30 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PRHP attended the proceedings.
• As many as four minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by a PML lawmaker, the House passed the Punjab Privileges (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• The House did not take up a private member’s resolution appearing on the agenda.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up six out of 13 starred questions, while lawmakers asked 14 supplementary questions as well.
• Minister for communication and works responded to a zero hour notice regarding dilapidated condition of a bridge in Faisalabad (PP-104).
• The chair deferred three other zero hour notices due to absence of relevant ministers while another notice was not taken up by the House.

Order and Institutionalization

• Ten lawmakers spoke on points of order for 29 minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, July 26, 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