ISLAMABAD, October 27, 2014: Starting 60 minutes behind the schedule, the Punjab Assembly passed three bills and adopted four resolutions during the 6^th and last sitting of 10^th session on Monday, says the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The House passed three bills – the Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill 2014, the Punjab Strategic Coordination Bill 2014 and the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2014.

The House adopted four separate resolutions including extending period of the NUR International University Lahore Ordinance 2014 and the Punjab Explosives (Amendment) Ordinance 2014 for 90 days with effect from November 6 and November 16, respectively. Through the third resolution, the House recommended the federal government and the parliament to legislate under Third Proviso of Clause 1 of Article 27 for ensuring the implementation of policy principles enshrined in Article 37(f) of the Constitution. The House also adopted a resolution for strengthening democracy in the country which was tabled by the Law Minister in one of the previous sittings.

The House continued to witness low attendance of members as 49 (13%) were present at the outset and 72 (20%) at the end of the sitting. The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition remained absent from the whole session which was prorogued.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and 12 minutes.
• The sitting began at 1600 hours against the schedule time of 1500 hours witnessing a delay of an hour.
• Forty-nine members (13%) were present at the outset and 72 (20%) at the end while a maximum of 128 (35%) members were observed at one point of the sitting.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for three hours and two minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition remained absent.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and JI attended the sitting.
• Four minority members attended the sitting.
• No member applied for leave.

 Output

• Introduced by the Law Minister, the House passed three bills – the Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill 2014, the Punjab Strategic Coordination Bill 2014 and the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2014.
• The House adopted two separate resolutions for extending period of the NUR International University Lahore Ordinance 2014 and the Punjab Explosives (Amendment) Ordinance 2014 90 days with effect from November 6 and November 16, respectively.
• The House adopted a resolution recommending the federal government and the parliament to legislate under Third Proviso of Clause 1 of Article 27 for ensuring the implementation of policy principles enshrined in Article 37(f) of the Constitution.
• The House also adopted a resolution for strengthening democracy in the country. It was tabled by the Law Minister in one of the previous sittings.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Seven out of 34 starred questions (requiring oral answers) appearing on the agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministries while 15 supplementary questions were also asked.
• The members of PML-N and PML tabled three various adjournment motions regarding health hazards to laborers and people residing near stone-crushing factories, provision of substandard medicines to DHQs in Punjab for anesthesia and parallel banking system.
• Sponsored by the PPPP and PML-N lawmakers, the House took up two calling attention notices regarding a dacoity incident in Lahore and firing by proclaimed offender in Gujrat.

Order and Institutionalization

• One point of order consumed three minutes of the proceedings’ time.
• No incidents of protests, walkouts and boycotts were observed.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was available to observers and the public.

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The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by PATTAN, a member organization of FAFEN.