ISLAMABAD, April 27, 2017: The Punjab Assembly’s Speaker rejected a Point of Order of Opposition Leader regarding Prime Minister and granted Public Accounts Committees two-month extension for presentation of their reports on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of 28^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 30 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1118 hours against the scheduled time of 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 13 minutes.
• Sixteen lawmakers (4%) were present at the outset and 40 (11%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI and PML-Z attended the sitting.
• Two minority members were present.

Output

• Minister for Women Development laid the Annual Report of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women 2014-2015 before the House.
• Standing Committees on Agriculture and Health presented their reports on matters referred to them by the House.
• The House granted extension to Public Accounts Committee I and Public Accounts Committee II.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 12 out of 23 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while six questions were disposed of and five were deferred due to the absence of movers. The lawmakers also asked 14 supplementary questions.
• The House deferred four Adjournment Motion of PTI, PML-N and PML lawmakers.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on six Points of Order consuming seven minutes of the proceedings while the Speaker rejected a Point of Order by the Leader of the Opposition.
• Entire opposition protested on floor of the House for six minutes demanding resignation of the Prime Minister.

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.