• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, November 23, 2021: The Punjab Assembly passed four private members’ bills and adopted two resolutions on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) it its daily factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the fourth sitting of the 37th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for 59 minutes.
• The sitting started at 02:10 pm against the scheduled time of 11:30 am.
• 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 38 MPAs (10%) were present at the outset and 83 (22%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leader of PPPP was present.
• As many as three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House passed four private members’ bills including the University of Lahore (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Rashid Latif Khan University Bill, 2021; the Punjab Community Safety Measures in Sports and Health Club’s Premises Bill, 2021 and the University of Management and Technology, Lahore (Amendment) Bill 2021.
• Two bills were introduced in the House which included the National College of Business Administration & Economics, Lahore (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Punjab Institute of Qura’n and Seerat Studies (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Both bills were referred to the relevant committees for further consideration.
• The House adopted two resolution seeking increase in allowances of lawmakers belonging to Punjab Assembly and restore activities of Gymkhana Club, Rawalpindi instead of its closure.
• The House did not consider five private members’ resolutions appearing on the agenda.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up three out of 34 starred questions while the lawmakers asked five supplementary questions.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers spoke on points of order for 17 minutes.
• 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.

The daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by SANGAT Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted