ISLAMABAD, May 25, 2017: The fifth sitting of the Punjab Assembly’s 29^th session could not hold discussion on agriculture and food due to lack of quorum on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of today’s proceedings:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 14 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 28 minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1113 hours against the scheduled time 1000 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Twelve MPAs (3%) were present at the outset and 40 (11%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Four minority members were present.

Output

• The House granted two-month extension to the Standing Committees on Finance and Communications for presentation of their reports.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as three out of 14 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while nine questions were deferred and two were disposed of due to the absence of movers or the relevant ministers. The lawmakers also asked 10 supplementary questions.
• The House deferred two Adjournment Motions of PML-N and PTI lawmakers on the request of the government.
• Minister for Agriculture initiated General Discussion on Agriculture and Food; however, he had spoken only for a minute when quorum was pointed out causing adjournment of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on seven Points of Order consuming eight minutes of the proceedings.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1152 hours that led to the suspension of proceedings for 28 minutes. However, the quorum was found incomplete again on recount and the sitting was adjourned till Friday.

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.