ISLAMABAD, January 29, 2021: The Punjab Assembly witnessed the introduction of three 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 third sitting of the 28^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 33 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1059 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
• The Speaker and Deputy Speaker were absent while 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 16 MPAs (5%) were present at the outset and 56 (18%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary Leader of PPPP attended the sitting.
• As many as four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Minister for Law introduced three government bills including the Emerson University, Multan Bill 2021; the Punjab Tourism, Culture and Heritage Authority Bill 2021 and the Ravi Urban Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2021.These bills were referred to the relevant committees.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up nine out of 16 starred questions while the lawmakers asked 20 supplementary questions as well.
• Minister for Law responded to a Zero Hour Notice regarding repairing of a road from Choa Saiden Shah to Khajola village.
• Another Zero Hour Notice was deferred due to absence of relevant minister.
• An adjournment motion on the agenda was referred to the Special Committee with directions from the Chair to submit report on it within two months.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Ten lawmakers spoke on points of order for 30 minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on February 01, 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