• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, March 9, 2021: The Punjab Assembly passed three Private Members’ bills and left five resolutions unaddressed on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the sixth and last sitting of the 30th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and three minutes.
• The sitting started at 1550 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 37 MPAs (10%) were present at the outset and 41 (11%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary Leader of PPPP attended the sitting while parliamentary leader of Pakistan Rah-e-Haq (PRH) was absent.
• One out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House passed three private members’ bills including the Bahawalpur Metropolitan University Bill, 2021, the Superior College, Lahore (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the University of Chenab Bill, 2021. These bills were sponsored by four lawmakers belonging to PTI and PML.
• Five resolutions on the agenda remained unaddressed due to the early adjournment of sitting. These resolutions were related to establishment of cardiac centre in Khushab, restoration of seats for students of Sindh in medical colleges of Punjab, ban on the use of fake currency notes at marriages or other ceremonies, uniform interest rate on foreign and indigenous currency and awareness among citizens to properly handle the sacred Islamic content.
• The Chair granted sixty-day extension to Law Minister for presentation of reports of the privileges and special committees.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two out of 16 starred questions related to Archaeology and Tourism Department. The lawmakers also asked two supplementary questions.
• The House took up two Zero Hour Notices regarding lane marking on roads in the province and poor road infrastructure in Sargodha. These notices were sponsored by PTI and PML-N lawmakers, respectively.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers belonging to PPPP, PML and PML-N spoke on points of order for 24 minutes which were related to governance issues, non-provision of free medicines to cancer patients in province and construction of a building of Rescue 1122 Centre in Faisalabad.
• The Session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

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