Punjab Assembly Leaves 75% Agenda Unaddressed

ISLAMABAD, January 22, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab deferred three quarters of its private members’ agenda due to absence of the concerned ministers or the movers on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 12^th sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for an hour and 48 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1219 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 65 MPAs (18%) were present at the outset while 60 (16%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Only the parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
• As many as four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by a PML lawmaker, the House rejected a resolution recommending to limit the maximum number of students in a class to 40.
• A PTI lawmaker withdrew her resolution regarding the ban on illegal sale of petrol.

• The House deferred eight private members’ resolutions due to absence of relevant ministers or movers.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House deferred four Starred Questions due to absence of the movers and the concerned minister. These questions were addressed to the ministries of Industries, Commerce & Investment, Labour & Human Resource and Environment Protection.
• The Minister for Law responded to a PTI lawmaker’s Adjournment Motion regarding harassment of citizens by Dolphin Police. Another AM regarding Kashmir issue was disposed of on the request of the Minister for Law. He suggested to move it as a resolution.
• The House deferred five AMs due to absence of the relevant ministers.
• The Minister of Law responded to a Zero Hour (ZH) notice raised by a PTI lawmaker regarding incidents of extortion from traders in Faisalabad.
• The House deferred the four ZH notices due to absence of the concerned ministers while disposed of two notices.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as 26 lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 25 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 23, 2019 (Wednesday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on the 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 PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.

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