ISLAMABAD, May 3, 2018: The Punjab Assembly did not take up its legislative business on Thursday amidst the lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fifth sitting of the 35^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 14 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 29 minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1124 hours against the scheduled time 1338 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for eight minutes.
• As many as 20 MPAs (5%) were present at outset and 32 (8%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of JI was present.
• As many as three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House did not take up the legislative business appearing on Orders of the Day.
• The Standing Committees on Home and Revenue, Relief and Consolidation presented their report to the House.
• The House granted two-month extension to the Standing Committee on Cooperatives for presentation of its report.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as eight out of 20 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while eight questions were deferred due to absence of the relevant minister and two were disposed of due to absence of the movers. The lawmakers also asked 19 supplementary questions.
• The House did not hold the general discussion on food.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised 12 Points of Order consuming 17 minutes of the proceedings.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1300 hours that led to the ringing of bells for five minutes and subsequently to suspension of the proceedings for 29 minutes. However, the quorum was still incomplete on resumption of the sitting and the House was adjourned to meet again on Friday (tomorrow) at 0900 hours.

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.