ISLAMABAD, December 21 2021: The Punjab Assembly passed two private members’ bills and and adopted three resolutions on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) it its daily factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the fifth sitting of the 38th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:37 pm against the scheduled time of 01:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the proceedings for 53 minutes while remaining sitting was chaired by the deputy speaker.
• The leaders of the house (chief minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 31 MPAs (8%) were present at the outset and 47 (13%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the sitting.
• One out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House passed two private members’ bills including the National College of Business Administration and Economics Lahore (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Punjab Public Representatives Law (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• Tabled by PML lawmaker, the House adopted two resolutions to ensure legislation for gold business and set up housing colony for employees of Punjab Assembly. Another resolution adopted by the House termed Tablighi Jamaat as non-political and peaceful set-up.
• The House witnessed introduction of five private members’ bills which were the University of Central Punjab Bill, 2021; the University of Rawalpindi Bill, 2021; University of Arts and Science Lahore Bill, 2021; the Nur International University (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Salar International University Bill, 2021. All these bills were referred to the relevant committee for further consideration.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 10 out of 29 starred questions while lawmakers asked 18 supplementary questions as well.
• Minister for law responded to a zero hour notice regarding a dacoity incident in area of Bhera police station.
• Seventeen zero hour notices were deferred due to absence of relevant ministers. These notices were related to ministries of Hosing, urban development and public health engineering; primary and secondary health care; environment protection; school education; industries and commerce; local government and community development and higher education. The Chair summoned all the relevant ministers through a ruling to attend the proceedings tomorrow (December 22) and respond these notices.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 01:00 pm.

 Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was not 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