• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, October 27, 2021: The Punjab Assembly took up entire legislative business on Wednesday but deferred question hour due to ministerial absence, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the second sitting of 36th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 42 minutes.
• The sitting started at 01:46 pm against the scheduled time of 11:30 am.
• The speaker presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The leader of the House (Chief Minister) was not present.
• The leader of the opposition attended the sitting for 59 minutes.
• As many as 26 MPAs (seven percent) were present at the outset and 32 (nine percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leader attended the proceedings.
• Four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

 Output

• The House witnessed introduction of four private members’ bills which were referred to the relevant committees. These bills were he Punjab General Provident Investment Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Punjab Pension Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Grand Asian University, Sialkot Bill, 2021.
• Moved by the minister for law, the House passed the Punjab Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• Minister for law and parliamentary affairs laid the Punjab Medical and Health Institutions (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 and the Ravi Urban Development Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021.
• Tabled by a PPPP lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution to gasify villages of Chiniot district and tehsil Pindi Bahttain district Hafizabad from where gas pipeline is passing.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House did not observe question hour due to absence of relevant minister. The questions were related to food department.
• The Chair referred an adjournment motion to the special committee which was about admission policy of Government College University, Lahore.
• The opposition leader participated in general discussion on price hike and measures to control dengue. He spoke on both issues for 40 minutes while minister for industries and commerce concluded debate on them during his 31-minute speech.

Order and Institutionalization

• PML-N lawmakers pointed out the quorum at 02:52 pm and 03:04 pm but it was ignored by the Chair on both occasions.
• The entire opposition protested against inflation during the proceedings and later walked out from the House.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on Assembly’s website.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by SANGAT Development Foundation, a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted