• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, March 14, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab passed the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority Bill, 2019 on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 17^th (last) sitting of the seventh session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 47 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1308 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present during the proceedings.
• The Leaders of the House and Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 80 MPAs (22%) were present at the outset and 102 (27%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PRHP attended the proceedings.
• As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House passed the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority Bill, 2019 in light of the report presented by the Standing Committee on Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering. The bill was referred to the committee on March 11, 2019. As many as six lawmakers participated in debate on bill for 28 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Irrigation responded to five out of six Starred Questions while one question was disposed of due to absence of the mover. The lawmakers asked 11 supplementary questions as well.
• The House deferred three Adjournment Motions appearing on agenda on request of the concerned ministers.
• The Minister for Law responded to a Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding murder of a citizen in Lahore which was sponsored by a PML lawmaker. Another CAN appearing on agenda was dropped due to absence of its mover.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as two lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for as many minutes.
• A lawmaker belonging to PML-N pointed out quorum at 1403 hours which was found complete after the headcount.
• The lawmakers belonging to PML-N staged walkout at 1453 hours against the passage of the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority Bill, 2019. The walkout continued until adjournment of the sitting.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

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.