ISLAMABAD, February 8, 2017: The Punjab Assembly passed four government bills including the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2017 in the absence of Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 13^th sitting of 26^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and 53 minutes however the proceedings remained suspended for 37 minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1104 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Fifteen MPAs (4%) were present at outset and 54 (14%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI and JI attended the sitting.
• Six minority members were present.

Output

• The House passed the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Punjab Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Land Records Authority Bill 2016 and the University of Home Economics Lahore Bill 2016. Ten lawmakers debated these bills for an hour and 11 minutes.
• The House considered the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2017 after suspending the Rule 95 which required the provision of copies of Standing Committee report on the bill to members at least three days prior to its consideration.
• The House granted two-month extension to Standing Committee on Colonies for presentation of its report.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as eight out of 14 Starred Questions were responded to during the Question Hour while remaining questions were disposed of due to absence of movers. The lawmakers also asked 27 supplementary questions.
• The House deferred two Adjournment Motions sponsored by PTI and PML lawmakers.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on four Points of Order consuming two minutes of the proceedings.
• PTI lawmakers staged a walkout for three minutes over not considering opposition’s amendments to the bills under consideration.
• The proceedings remained suspended for 37 minutes due to lack of quorum identified by an Independent lawmaker at 1121 hours.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum again at 1348 hours however it was found complete after ringing bells for five minutes.

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.