ISLAMABAD, February 2, 2017: The Punjab Assembly passed the Punjab Civil Administration Bill, 2017 on Thursday amid Opposition’s walkout, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during ninth sitting of 26^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 51 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1116 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for two hours and four minutes.
• Sixteen MPAs (4%) were present at outset and 63 (17%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Five minority members were present.

Output

• The House passed the Punjab Civil Administration Bill, 2017 with majority vote. Six lawmakers including the Minister for law debated the bill for an hour.
• The House did not take up two other bills appearing on Orders of the Day.
• The Standing Committee on Health presented its report on Bill No. 2/2016 while nine committees were granted two months’ extension for presentation of their reports.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House deferred ten out of 16 Starred Questions due to delay in written replies from concerned government departments. Only four Starred Questions were taken up and answered during Question Hour while two were dropped due to absence of the movers. The lawmakers also asked 15 supplementary questions.
• The House deferred a Calling Attention Notice and two Adjournment Motions submitted by PML-N and PTI lawmakers.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 13 Points of Order consuming 18 minutes of the proceedings.
• Entire Opposition staged a walkout against passage of the Punjab Civil Administration Bill, 2017.
• An Independent and a PTI lawmaker identified quorum at 1245 hours and 1328 hours respectively. On both instances, the Chair ordered to ring the bells for five minutes after which the quorum was completed.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• 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.