Category: Elections / Appointments

Islamabad, August 13, 2021 (PPI-OT): The Provincial Assembly of Punjab left most of its agenda unaddressed on Friday due to confrontation between treasury and opposition lawmakers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the 12th and last sitting of 34th session:

Members’ Participation

The House met for an hour and 43 minutes.

The sitting started at 10:22 am against the scheduled time of 09:00 am.

A member of panel of chairpersons presided over the entire sitting in the absence of speaker and deputy speaker.

The leaders of the House (chief minister) and the opposition were absent.

As many as 17 MPAs (five percent) were present at the outset and 107 (29 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.

The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.

Three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

The House did not consider six private members’ resolutions and a statutory report.

Representation and Responsiveness

The House took up five out of 31 starred questions while lawmakers also asked six supplementary questions.

Thirteen zero hour notices and nine calling attention notices remained unaddressed.

Order and Institutionalization

Eight lawmakers spoke on points of order for 20 minutes.

Lawmakers belonging to treasury benches protested for 11 minutes during the proceedings against remarks of PML-N lawmakers about their leadership. Following this protest, the Chair suspended the proceedings for 44 minutes.

A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 11:48 am but it was found complete upon counting.

The Chair suspended the membership of two PML-N lawmaker for the same day’s sitting due to their remarks about PTI’s leadership and reportedly misconduct with the Minister for law during the proceedings.

The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.

Information on Members’ attendance is available on Assembly’s website.

For more information, contact:
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN)
FAFEN Representative
FAFEN Secretariat 224, Margalla Road F-10/3 – Islamabad
Tel: +92-51-2211026
Fax: +92-51-2211047
Cell: +92-321-5017355, +92-301-8549188
Email: media@fafen.org
URL: www.fafen.org

Islamabad, June 29, 2021 (PPI-OT): The Punjab Assembly passed two private members’ bills on Tuesday and deferred six zero hours notices, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the 11th sitting of the 33rd session:

Members’ Participation

The House met for an hour and nine minutes.

The sitting started at 03:45 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.

The speaker presided over the entire sitting.

The deputy speaker did not attend the sitting.

The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.

As many as 83 MPAs (22 percent) were present at the outset and 97 (26 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.

The parliamentary leader of PPPP and PRHP attended the proceedings.

As many as three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

The House passed two private members’ bills including the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab Privileges (Amendment) Bill 2021.

A resolution on the agenda was deferred, while two others were disposed of after reply from the concerned ministers.

Representation and Responsiveness

The House took up two out of 27 starred questions, while lawmakers asked four supplementary questions as well.

Provincial Minister for Health responded to zero hour notice regarding setting up of blood banks in the district headquarters hospitals of the province. Other six zero hour notices on the agenda were deferred.

Order and Institutionalization

Six lawmakers spoke on points of order for 17 minutes related to governance issues and parliamentary business.

The House was adjourned to meet again on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

Transparency

‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.

Information on Members’ attendance is available on Assembly’s website.

For more information, contact:
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN)
FAFEN Representative
FAFEN Secretariat 224, Margalla Road F-10/3 – Islamabad
Tel: +92-51-2211026
Fax: +92-51-2211047
Cell: +92-321-5017355, +92-301-8549188
Email: media@fafen.org
URL: www.fafen.org

Islamabad, June 29, 2021 (PPI-OT): The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly approved 55 supplementary demands for grants for the financial year 2020-21, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 10th sitting of the 19th session:

Members’ Participation

The Assembly met for three hours and five minutes.

The sitting started at 02:40 pm against the scheduled time of 01:00 pm.

The speaker presided over the entire sitting, while the deputy speaker was also present.

The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.

Sixty-five legislators (45 percent) were present at the outset and 50 (34 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.

The parliamentary leader of MMAP, ANP and PML-N attended the proceedings.

Three out of four minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

The House approved 55 supplementary demands for grants for the financial year 2020-21 related to different public departments, while the opposition lawmakers withdrew their all 596 cut motions.

The provincial minister for finance tabled the authenticated schedule of authorized expenditures for the year 2020-2021 under Article 123 of the Constitution.

Tabled by an ANP lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a resolution demanding to hand over Himalaya House, Nathia Gali to Civil Secretariat Peshawar again.

Another resolution on the agenda was deferred on the request of Minister for Labour and Culture.

Order and Institutionalization

The female lawmakers walked out from the House for 15 minutes against remarks of an ANP lawmaker about one of their colleagues.

The House was adjourned for an indefinite period.

Transparency

‘Orders of the Day’ was available for the legislators, observers and the media.

Attendance of the lawmakers was not available for the observers and the media.

For more information, contact:
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN)
FAFEN Representative
FAFEN Secretariat 224, Margalla Road F-10/3 – Islamabad
Tel: +92-51-2211026
Fax: +92-51-2211047
Cell: +92-321-5017355, +92-301-8549188
Email: media@fafen.org
URL: www.fafen.org

Islamabad, June 29, 2021 (PPI-OT): The National Assembly passed the Finance Bill, 2021 on Tuesday with majority vote, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 18th sitting of the 34th session:

Members’ Participation

The House met for five hours and 23 minutes.

The proceedings started at 11:44 am against the scheduled time of 11:30 am.

The speaker presided over the proceedings for two hours and four minutes, the deputy speaker for two hours and 55 minutes, while remaining sitting was chaired by a member of panel of chairpersons.

The leader of the House (Prime Minister) attended the sitting for 52 minutes.

The leader of the opposition did not attend the sitting.

A total of 73 lawmakers (21 percent) were present at the outset and 159 (46 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.

The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, MQMP, ANP, PPPP, BAP, JWP, AMLP, PML and GDA attended the sitting.

Output

Moved by the Minister for Finance and Revenue, House passed a motion to consider the Finance Bill, 2021. One hundred and seventy-two (172) lawmakers voted in its favour of the motion and 138 lawmakers against it. Subsequently, the House passed the Finance Bill, 2021 with amendments.

A PPPP lawmaker complained about the hasty passage of the bill as the Chair asked to consider amendments as `read’ instead of allowing mover to read them completely.

Representation and Responsiveness

Minister for Finance and Revenue concluded the general discussion on the Finance Bill, 2021 consuming 12 minutes of the proceedings. Earlier, 11 lawmakers spoke on it for two hours and ten minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

The House was adjourned to meet again on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 11:30 am.

Transparency

‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.

Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

For more information, contact:
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN)
FAFEN Representative
FAFEN Secretariat 224, Margalla Road F-10/3 – Islamabad
Tel: +92-51-2211026
Fax: +92-51-2211047
Cell: +92-321-5017355, +92-301-8549188
Email: media@fafen.org
URL: www.fafen.org

Islamabad, June 29, 2021 (PPI-OT): The Provincial Assembly of Sindh left 86 percent of its agenda unaddressed mainly due to the absence of movers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 19th sitting of the 21st session:

Members’ Participation

The House met for an hour and 12 minutes.

The sitting started at 03:08 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.

The speaker chaired the entire proceedings.

The deputy speaker was also present.

The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.

As many as 38 MPAs (23 percent) were present at the outset and 53 (32 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.

The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQMP, TLP and MMAP were present, while GDA and PTI leaders did not attend the sitting.

Six out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

Output

The House did not consider ten private members’ bills and four resolutions due to absence of relevant lawmakers.

A resolution on the agenda was deferred, while two private members’ bills were not taken up in the House due to early adjournment of sitting.

An amendment to the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh seeking prayer break was referred to the relevant committee.

Representation and Responsiveness

The House did not consider an adjournment motion and a privilege motion due to absence of relevant lawmakers, while a private motion was not considered.

Four out of nine starred questions were taken up during the question hour. In addition, the lawmakers asked ten supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

A lawmaker spoke on point of order for two minutes.

A PTI lawmaker walked out from the House at 03:49 pm against Chair’s attitude with opposition lawmakers and did not return to the House till adjournment of sitting.

The House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, July 2, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

Transparency

‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.

The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the media and observers.

For more information, contact:
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN)
FAFEN Representative
FAFEN Secretariat 224, Margalla Road F-10/3 – Islamabad
Tel: +92-51-2211026
Fax: +92-51-2211047
Cell: +92-321-5017355, +92-301-8549188
Email: media@fafen.org
URL: www.fafen.org