ISLAMABAD, March 11, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab transacted entire legislative business on Wednesday and passed two government bills, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the 20^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 39 minutes, however, the proceeding remained suspended for 39 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1643 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leaders of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 44 minutes.
• As many as 87 (23%) MPAs were present at the outset and 115 (31%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• A parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
• As many as seven out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by Minister for Law, the House passed the Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions (Reforms) Bill, 2019 with recommendations of the Standing Committee on Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education. Five lawmakers including the law minister spoke on it for an hour and 14 minutes.
• Introduced by Minister for Law, the House also passed the Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019 after voice voting. The bill was not referred to the concerned standing committee.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 13 out of 35 starred questions while 18 questions were disposed of due to absence of their movers. In addition, the lawmakers asked 21 supplementary questions.

 Order and Institutionalization

• As many as three lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for ten minutes.
• The PML-N lawmakers protested for two minutes against the passage of the Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019 without referring it to the concerned standing committee.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on March 12, 2020 (Thursday) at 1500 hours.

Transparency

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

The 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 regretted