ISLAMABAD, March 07, 2018: The Punjab Assembly did not take up seven government bills on Wednesday due to the lack of quorum that caused suspension of the proceedings for more than two hours, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 23^rd sitting of the 34^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours hour and 43 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for two hours and five minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1046 hours against the scheduled time 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for six minutes.
• As many as 24 MPAs (7%) were present at outset and 40 (11%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of JI was present during the proceedings.
• As many as six minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House did not take seven government bills and three audit reports appearing on the Order of the Day.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Only one out of 10 Starred Questions was answered during the proceedings while the six questions were deferred and three were disposed of due to absence of the concerned lawmakers. The lawmakers asked four supplementary questions as well.
• The House did not hold the scheduled Pre-Budget General Discussion.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised 10 Points of Order consuming eight minutes of the proceedings.
• The proceedings were suspended for two hours and five minutes due to lack of quorum identified by a PTI lawmaker. The sitting was subsequently adjourned when only 11% lawmakers were observed present on the resumption of the proceedings.
• The House will meet again on 0900 hours on Friday, March 9, 2018.

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.