ISLAMABAD, March 5, 2021: The Punjab Assembly witnessed introduction of five government bills on Friday which were referred to the relevant committees for consideration, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the fourth sitting of the 30^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for 33 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1128 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
• The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were absent.
• A member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the entire sitting.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 17 MPAs (5%) were present at the outset and 43 (12%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary Leader of PPPP attended the sitting.
• Only one out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Minister for Law introduced five government bills in the House which were referred to the relevant committees for further deliberation. These bills were the Punjab Women Hostels Authority Bill 2021; the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2021; the Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax (Amendment) Bill 202; the Punjab Apprenticeship Bill 2021 and the Thal University Bhakkar Bill 2021.
• Minster for Law also laid nine ordinances in the House which were the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2021; the Lahore Central Business District Development Authority Ordinance 2021; the Ravi Urban Development Authority (Amendment) Ordinance 2021; the Emerson University, Multan Ordinance 2021; the Code of Civil Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Ordinance 2021; the Punjab Letters of Administration and Succession Certificates Ordinance 2021, the Punjab Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights Ordinance 202;  the Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2021 and the Provincial Employees’ Social Security (Amendment) Ordinance 2021. These ordinances were referred to the relevant committees for two months.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not take up any question due to absence of relevant minister.
• The House did not consider two Zero Hour Notices regarding deteriorated road in Sargodha and COVID-19 vaccination of health workers in District Chiniot.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Three lawmakers spoke on points of order for 13 minutes.

• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1147 hours which was ignored by the Chair.

• Lawmakers belonging to PPPP and PML-N protested for nine minutes when the Chair did not allow them to speak on the Points of Order.
• The Session was adjourned to meet again on March 8, 2021 (Monday) at 1400 hours.

Transparency

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

This 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.