ISLAMABAD, February 12, 2016: The Punjab Assembly passed two government bills on Friday during eleventh sitting of its 19^th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 49 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1026 hours against the scheduled time 0900 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 48 minutes.
• 12 MPAs (3%) were present at outset and 59 (16%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Five minority members were present.

Output

• The House passed the Punjab Public Representatives’ Laws (Amendment) Bill 2016 unanimously without any discussion.
• The Punjab Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill 2015 was passed with majority vote while the House also approved an amendment to it moved by lawmakers belonging to PML and PNML.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The government orally responded to 12 out of 34 starred questions appearing on agenda while three questions were deferred and seven questions were disposed of due to absence of relevant members. The lawmakers also asked 29 supplementary questions. The House did not take up rest of the questions due to lack of time.
• The Parliamentary Secretary for Law & Parliamentary Affairs responded to two adjournment motions regarding LPG filling stations in Lahore and hoarding of fertilizers.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on three points of order consuming six minutes of the proceeding.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

To download the factsheet, click here for English version – click here for Urdu version

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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.