ISLAMABAD, November 27, 2019: The Punjab Assembly took up most of its agenda and passed a government bill as recommended by the relevant Standing Committee, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the eighth sitting of the 16^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 31 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1643 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting in the absence of Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 95 MPAs (25%) were present at the outset and 98 (26%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Only parliamentary leader of PPPP was present.
• As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House passed the Punjab Sentencing Bill 2019 as recommended by the Standing Committee on Home.
• The Minister for Law presented nine audit reports of various departments and a report of Appropriation Accounts of the Forest Department.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took eight out of 34 starred questions while the lawmakers also asked 15 supplementary questions.
• The Minister for Communication and Works responded to zero hour notice about alleged embezzlement in tax amount being collected from a toll plaza on Chiniot-Jhang Road.
• An Adjournment Motion of PML-N lawmaker was deferred due to non-reply from the concerned department. The motion was regarding reduction in Punjab Education Endowment Funds and reservation of students on it.

 Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised six Points of Order consuming 11 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on November 28, 2019 (Thursday) at 1500 hours.

Transparency

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

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