Punjab PA Leaves 50% Private Members’ Agenda Unaddressed

ISLAMABAD, January 28, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab, on Tuesday, left half of the Private Members’ agenda unaddressed due absence of the movers and concerned ministers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are the key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the 18^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 25 minutes while the sitting remained suspended for an hour and 46 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1634 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and six minutes while rest of the sitting was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 27 (7%) MPAs were present at the outset and 43 (12%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• A parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
• Three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House disposed of the Pakistan Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020 due to mover’s absence.
• The House rejected three private resolutions after voice voting. The rejected motions were demanding for uniform educational policy for private educational institutes in the province, establishment of cardiology centres at the district level and actions against misbehaviour of Monitoring and Evaluation Assistants (MEAs) with teaching staff. Another two private resolutions were deferred due to absence of concerned ministers, as many resolutions were withdrawn by their movers while one resolution was disposed of due to absence of its mover.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up eight out of 37 starred questions while the lawmakers asked 17 supplementary questions as well.
• The Chair deferred an Adjournment Motion (AM) of PML-N lawmaker highlighting delay in the construction of medical tower in Jinnah Hospital, Lahore on request of the Minister for Health.
• The Minister for Irrigation responded to a zero hour notice of a PPPP lawmaker about lifting soil from a canal in district Rajanpur.

 Order and Institutionalization

• As many as nine lawmakers spoke on 15 Points of Order consuming 28 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 29, 2020 (Wednesday) 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 PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted

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