ISLAMABAD, September 1, 2016: The Punjab Assembly did not take up the legislative and non-legislative business set for Thursday’s sitting, but discussed human rights’ violations in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during ninth sitting of the 23^rd session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 59 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1117 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 38 minutes while a member of the Panel of Chairpersons presided over the rest of the sitting. The Deputy Speaker attended the sitting but did not chair its proceedings.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 10 minutes.
• Twenty-eight lawmakers (2%) were present at the outset and 54 (11%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI and PPPP attended the sitting.
• Four minority members were present.

Output

• The House did not take up the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment) Bill 2016 and the Punjab Poultry Production Bill 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as nine out of 15 Starred Questions were responded to by the government while six others were disposed of due to the absence of the movers. The lawmakers also asked 25 Supplementary Questions.
• The House deferred seven Adjournment Motions (AMs) on various matters of public importance while a privilege motion was also deferred.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 32 Points of Order consuming an hour of the proceedings and discussed the human rights’ violations in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
• The entire opposition protested on the floor of the House for ignoring the statements of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and MQM founder Altaf Hussain during a meeting of the federal cabinet.
• JI lawmaker staged a token boycott of the proceedings for nine minutes, protesting against the sale of liquor in the province.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Information on Members’ attendance (except for parliamentary functionaries) 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 excepted.