ISLAMABAD, December 12, 2018: The Punjab government introduced six bills in the Provincial Assembly of Punjab on Wednesday including legislation for prevention of conflict of interest, time-bound provision of public services and rights of domestic workers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during eighth sitting of the fifth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and one minute.
• The sitting started at 1242 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 70 MPAs (19%) were present at the outset and 130 (35%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and Rah-e-Haq Party attended the proceedings.
• As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The Minister for Law introduced the Punjab Prevention of Conflict of Interest Bill 2018, the Punjab Right to Public Services Bill 2018, the Punjab Domestic Workers Bill 2018, the Punjab Skills Development Authority Bill 2018, the Punjab Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Amendment) Bill 2018 and the Punjab Board of Technical Education (Amendment) Bill 2018. The House referred these bills to Special Committee-I for further review and recommendation.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House deferred a PTI lawmaker’s Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding lumber-theft in Sargodha due to unpreparedness of the relevant minister to respond to the motion.
• The House took up seven Starred Questions addressed to the ministries of Prisons and Home. The lawmakers asked 19 supplementary questions as well.

 Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised 18 Points of Order consuming 29 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 13, 2018 (Thursday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

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

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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.