PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY OF PUNJAB

27th SESSION

FAFENPARLIAMENT

MONITOR

March 6 - March 20, 2017

FREE AND FAIR ELECTION NETWORK

www.fafen.org www.openparliament.pk

HIGHLIGHTS

33Hours & 20 Minutes

Working Hours

11ActualSittings

WorkingDays

15

SessionNumber

27

The Punjab Assembly witnessed low

attendance throughout 27th session

with the Chief Minister staying away

from the proceedings for the

consecutive fifth session. Among other

important parliamentary figures, the

Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the

Leader of the Opposition attended nine,

three and six out of 11 sittings,

respectively.

On average, 87 lawmakers (23%)

attended each sitting of the entire

session. The long delays in

commencement of Assembly sittings

continued during this session as well.

On average, each sitting started one

hour and 33 minutes behind its

scheduled time.

The identification of missing quorum

disrupted the proceedings 14 times.

Seven sittings faced suspensions or

adjournments due to lack of quorum

while five times the quorum was

completed on ringing bells installed in

the Assembly chambers. Nearly 13%

duration of the proceedings was

consumed in suspensions due to

quorum related issues.

The Assembly considered and passed

one bill and held pre-budget discussion

during the session. Sixty-seven

lawmakers belonging to seven political

parties participated in the discussion

that continued for more than seven

hours spanning over five sittings.

However, no recommendations were

referred to the government for

upcoming budget at the end of

discussion.

The session also witnessed adoption of

six resolutions and presentation of four

committee reports. Meanwhile, the

lawmakers asked 258 questions and

submitted seven Calling Attention

Notices (CANs) during the reporting

session. The treasury kept ignoring

lawmakers' Adjournment Motions (AM)

on the matters of public importance.

More than 80% AMs kept pending till the

last sitting. Under the rules, the pending

AMs lapse with the prorogation of the

relevant session. Two Calling Attention

Notices and as many Zero Hour notices

also remained unaddressed while 29

Starred Questions were not taken up for

oral answers by the government.

The reporting session was better than

the preceding one with regards to the

protests. Unlike 13 protests/walkouts

during the last session, the 27th session

witnessed only two such instances. The

opposition parties registered their

protest over mismanagement of sale of

Pakistan Super League's tickets and

alleged partisan behavior of the Speaker

through token walkout and boycott of

the proceedings.

LOW ATTENDANCE, DELAY IN SITTINGS MARK PUNJAB

THASSEMBLY'S 27 SESSION

One Govt. Bill Passed; Two Private Members' Bills Remain Unaddressed

Punjab Assembly Adopts Six Resolutions

Chief Minister Remains Absent Since Five Sessions

PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS ATTENDANCE

Ch Moonis Elahi

PML

0/11

S. Iftikhar Gillani

BNAP

0/11

Bilal Asghar Warraich

PNML

0/11

KEY MEMBERS ATTENDANCE

SPEAKER DEPUTY SPEAKER CHIEF MINISTER LEADER OF OPPOSITION

Rana Muhammad Iqbal Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani Mian Shahbaz Sharif Mian Mehmood-ur-Rashid

9/11 3/11 0/11 6/11 Presiding Time (hh:mm) Presiding Time (hh:mm) Attended Time (hh:mm) Attended Time (hh:mm)

18:27 07:41 0:00 05:34

Sardar Shahab-ud-Din

PPPP

2/11

Ghulam Murtaza

PML-Z

3/11

Syed Waseem Akhtar

JI

6/11

Muhammad Sibtain Khan

PTI

1/11

* The Members of panel of chairpersons presided over the sitting for two hours and 48 minutes.

HIGHLIGHTS

Duration and Attendance

The 27th session of the Punjab

Assembly, commencing on March 6,

continued for 15 Working Days and

comprised 11 sittings. Total working

time of the Assembly remained 33 hours

and 20 minutes. Every sitting faced long

delays in its commencement and on

average started an hour and 33 minutes

behind the scheduled time. The

maximum delay any sitting witnessed

was two hours and 36 minutes while the

minimum was an hour and 10 minutes.

The average duration of a sitting was

three hours and one minute which is

slight improvement as compared to

average sitting duration in last session

i.e. two hours and 40 minutes. The

longest sitting continued for four hours

and 38 minutes while the shortest

finished in an hour and 49 minutes.

Nearly 13% of working time (four hours

and 24 minutes) was consumed by

suspensions due to lack of quorum. The

lawmakers pointed out quorum 14 times

during the 11 sittings. Thirteen times, it

was found lacking. Seven sittings faced

suspensions or adjournments because

of less than required attendance and

five times, bells were rung to complete

the quorum.

The Chief Minister did not attend any

sitting during the entire session. It is

consecutively fifth session that the

Leader of the House has not been

attending. Among other important

parliamentary figures, the Speaker, the

Deputy Speaker and the Leader of the

Opposition attended nine, three and six

sittings, respectively. Among the

parliamentary leaders, the JI leader was

the most regular with maximum

attendance in six sittings, followed by

PML-Z and PPPP leaders three and two

sittings, respectively. The Speaker

presided over the proceedings for 18

hours and 27 minutes (55%), the Deputy

Speaker for seven hours and 41 minutes

(23%) and the members of Panel of

Chairpersons for two hours and 48

minutes (8%). The remaining time was

consumed in suspensions of the

proceedings.

According to official attendance records

available on the website of the Punjab

Assembly, on average 87 (23%)

lawmakers attended a sitting. The

highest attendance was recorded 115

(31%) during fifth sitting and the lowest

65 (18%) during seventh sitting. The

attendance was less than required one

fourth of total membership during six

sittings. However, the official

attendance records do not include

attendance of Chief Minister, Provincial

Ministers and Parliamentary

Secretaries. FAFEN also conducts

headcount at onset and adjournment of

each sitting. According to these

headcounts, only 17 lawmakers were

observed to be present at the outset and

40 at the adjournment of a sitting on

average. The maximum attendance at

the outset was recorded 39 and the

minimum six lawmakers. Similarly, the

maximum presence at adjournment of

the sitting was 75 and minimum four

lawmakers.

Legislation

The Punjab Assembly transacted a

modest legislative agenda during 27th

session. It considered and passed only

one government bill while two private

members' bills remained unaddressed

despite appearing twice on the agenda.

Passed Bills

The Punjab Private Educational

Institutions (Promotion and Regulation)

(Amendment) Bill 2017

The bill provides for the mechanism to

increase the fees of private educational

institutions.

Resolutions

The House adopted six resolutions

during the reporting session. Four of

these resolutions were moved as

supplementary agenda while two others

appeared as regular business.

A total of 11 Private Members'

87present

Maximum Attendance

40present

Members at End(Average)

17 present

Members at Outset(Average)

4Suspension

Hours & 24 Minutes

HIGHLIGHTS

resolutions were included on Orders of

the Day, however, only two of these were

adopted while six were not moved due

to the absence of concerned lawmakers

or lack of quorum, two were withdrawn

and one was kept pending.

The approved Private Members'

resolutions recommended the

government to construct an industrial

zone in Bahawalpur and a bridge over

Jhelum River in Chak Nizam. The four

supplementary resolutions were passed

to mark the International Women's Day,

appreciate the Punjab government for

holding Pakistan Super League's final

match in Lahore and to condemn the

incidents of terrorism in the country and

also the blasphemous content against

religious personalities on social media.

Committee

Reports/Statutory Reports

Four standing committees of the Punjab

Assembly presented their reports before

the House during the reporting session.

These reports were related to the

legislation, questions and privilege

motions referred to the committees by

the House. The government also laid

three statutory reports, including an

audit report for the year 2014-15.

Moreover, 13 committees were granted

extension for the presentation of 35

reports.

Pre-Budget Discussion

The Punjab Assembly held a pre-budget

discussion during the reporting period

to invite the lawmakers' proposals for

budget of upcoming financial year.

Under Rule 133-A of the Rules of

Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of

the Punjab 1997, the government is

required to include the pre-budget

discussion in a session held during

January to March every year. The

discussion is to be continued for four

days at least and following the

discussion, the Assembly may make

recommendations to the government

through a resolution to be moved by

Minister for Finance.

This year, the discussion continued in

five sittings and 67 lawmakers,

including the Minister for Finance

participated in it, consuming seven

hours and 26 minutes (22%) of the

session's working hours. Among the

participants, 48 belonged to PML-N, 12

to PTI, two each to PML, PML-Z and an

Independent and one each to JI and

PPPP. PML-N lawmakers consumed

68% of the discussion's time, PTI 28%, JI

3%, PML and Independent 2% each and

PPPP 1%.

Adjournment Motions

The lawmakers submitted 33

Adjournment Motions on issues of

public importance. Sixteen motions

were raised by PTI lawmakers, nine by

PML and eight by PML-N.

The government responded to only six

of these motions while the remaining

motions kept pending till the

prorogation of the session. The

lawmakers highlighted the sale of

adulterated or unsafe milk production,

parking issues in Lahore, land grabbing

and issues related to health, education,

agriculture, transportation and

governance.

Calling Attention Notices

The lawmakers submitted seven Calling

Attention Notices (CANs) to draw the

attention of the government on law and

order situation in the province. PTI and

PML-N lawmakers raised two notices

each while PML, PPPP and Independent

lawmakers moved one notice each.

Two of the seven notices kept pending

while remaining were responded to by

the Minister for Law and Parliamentary

Affairs by making statements on them.

The lawmakers highlighted the

incidents of murders and dacoity

through these CANs.

1Government

Bill Passed

6Resolutions Adopted

33Adjournment

Motions

7Calling Attention

Notices

*The details of reports are attached as Annexure-I.

1

HIGHLIGHTS

Questions

A total of 258 Questions (145 Starred

and 113 Unstarred) were admitted for

answers. The Rules of Procedure require

both oral and written answers for

Starred Question and only written

answers for Unstarred Questions. Of

286 Starred Questions, 71 were taken up

for oral answers while 36 Questions

were disposed of due to the absence of

movers and nine kept pending. The

remaining 29 Starred Questions were

not taken up on floor of the House. The

lawmakers also asked 209

Supplementary Questions for further

elucidation of Starred Questions.

Zero Hour

The lawmakers raised five Zero Hour

notices on issues of public importance

during the reporting session. Four

notices were submitted by PML-N

lawmakers and one by a PTI lawmaker.

The government responded to three of

these notices while remaining two

notices remained pending. These

notices highlighted the issues of

encroachment in Daroghawala area of

Lahore, industrial waste polluting Sutlej

River, illegal allotment of plots in

Khushab and delay in payments of

pensions to District Councils'

employees and Christmas gifts to

Christians.

Privilege Motions

Two lawmakers belonging to PML-N

and PTI submitted Privilege Motions

against District Coordination Officer of

Mandi Bahauddin and former lawmaker

of PP-72. The House referred the PML-

N lawmakers' Privilege Motion to the

relevant committee while PTI

lawmakers' motion kept pending.

Points of Order

The lawmakers raised 69 Points of

Order (POs) consuming an hour and 12

minutes (about four percent of the

proceedings' duration). Most of the POs

were related to the constituency

matters, political developments and

current affairs instead of the business

of the House.

Protests

The opposition lawmakers in the Punjab

Assembly staged protests and walkouts

twice during the reporting session. They

walked out on the issues of

mismanagement in the sale of Pakistan

Super League's tickets and alleged

partisan behavior of the Chair against

opposition parties.

113Unstarred Questions

145Starred

Questions

2Statutory Reports

4Committee

Reports

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ABOUT FAFEN

This report is based on direct observation of the proceedings of the Punjab Assembly conducted by PATTAN

Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Every effort has been made to keep this

report, which deals with on-floor performance of the Members, accurate and comprehensive. Errors and

omissions are excepted.