Punjab Assembly Prorogued without Taking Up Agenda

ISLAMABAD, March 13, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab was prorogued sine die on Friday without holding a scheduled discussion on the Orange Line Metro, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fifth (last) sitting of the 20th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for an hour and 16 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1113 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
  • A member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the sitting in the absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.
  • The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 31 (8%) MPAs were present at the outset and 73 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • A parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
  • As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

  • The House did not hold the discussion on the Orange Line Metro Train Project and fixation of its fares.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up 11 out of 33 starred questions while seven questions were disposed of due to absence of their movers. In addition, the lawmakers asked 28 supplementary questions.

 Order and Institutionalization

  • As many as eight lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for 19 minutes.
  • The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.
  • Information on Members’ attendance is available on the Assembly’s website.

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