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Free and Fair Election Networkwww.fafen.org I www.openparliament.pk
PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY OF PUNJAB
FAFEN PARLIAMENT MONITOR
23RD SESSION
August 22 - September 2, 2016
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HIGHLIGHTS
22Hours & 42 Minutes
SessionDuration
10ActualSittings
WorkingDays
12
SessionNumber
23
The 23rd session of the Punjab
Assembly remained productive in terms
of legislation but it completely ignored
the public importance issues
highlighted by the lawmakers. The
House transacted a heavy legislative
agenda amidst the absence of the
Leader of the House (Chief Minister)
who did not attend any sitting of the
session.
The legislation comprised 14
Government and two Private Members'
Bills, including five ordinances which
were promulgated during last two
months when the Assembly was not in
session. However, a number of
Adjournment Motions, Calling Attention
Notices and Zero Hour Notices were still
pending when the session was
prorogued on September 2, 2016.
Besides making recommendations to
the government on public issues, the
House adopted a number of resolutions
to express its opinion on various
happenings, including incidents of
terrorism and anti-Pakistan rhetoric of
Altaf Hussain and Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi. In the backdrop of
reported increase in child abductions,
the government also arranged a general
discussion on law and order where the
Law Minister put the crime statistics
before the lawmakers. The Opposition
was also given the opportunity to
respond to the government claims.
Following are findings of the report:
Duration and Attendance
Every sitting of 23rd session started
well behind the scheduled time. The
minimum delay in the commencement
of the proceedings was 56 minutes
while the maximum one hour and 57
minutes. On average, every sitting
began an hour and 19 minutes late and
continued for two hours and 16
minutes. The cumulative duration of the
10-sitting session was 22 hours and 42
minutes.
The attendance trends were also not
very encouraging as only 20 members
were present at the outset and 48 at the
adjournment of a sitting, on average.
The Leader of the House remained
absent throughout the session while the
Leader of the Opposition attended nine
out of 10 sittings and remained present
in 60% of the proceedings' cumulative
duration. The entire proceedings were
presided over by the Speaker except for
an hour and 21 minutes when a member
of the Panel of Chairpersons presided
over the sitting. The Deputy Speaker
was present in three sittings but did not
chair any of them. The Jamaat-e-Islami
(JI) member was the most regular
among all parliamentary leaders, who
attended six sittings followed by PPPP
and PML-Z leaders who attended two
and one sittings respectively.
Punjab Assembly Heavy on Legislation, Light onPublic Importance Issues
Low attendance of lawmakers keeps hauntingProvincial Assembly Proceedings
Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attendany of the sittings
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HIGHLIGHTS
Legislation
The Punjab Assembly passed five
government bills during the session,
while 11 legislative proposals (five
ordinances, four government bills and
two private members' bills) were
referred to the relevant standing
committees following their introduction.
Passed Bills
THE PUNJAB CIVIL COURTS
(AMENDMENT) BILL 2016
The bill seeks to increase the pecuniary
jurisdiction of the District Appellate
Courts, to update the law in the
backdrop of the current legal
dispensation.
THE PUNJAB CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF
TERRORISM (RELIEF AND
REHABILITATION) BILL 2016 (BILL No.
18 of 2016
The bill provides for institutionalized
response to civilian victims of terrorism.
THE PUNJAB PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOUR AT BRICK KILNS BILL 2016
The bill puts a ban on employing
children for labour at brick kilns and
provides strict punishments for
offenders.
THE PUNJAB ANIMALS SLAUGHTER
CONTROL (SECOND AMENDMENT) BILL
2016
The bill seeks to remove some
rebuttable presumptions and anomalies
in Section 3A of the existing law.
THE PUNJAB REVENUE AUTHORITY
(SECOND AMENDMENT) BILL 2016
The Bill seeks to provide for
retrospective validation of
establishment of the Punjab Revenue
Authority, rationalizing the conditions of
eligibility of the accountant member of
the Appellate Tribunal, empower the
Authority to frame its regulations and
authorize the Government to grant
performance based incentives to the
Chairperson and members of the
Authority.
Introduced Bills
THE INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
AUTHORITY OF THE PUNJAB
(AMENDMENT) BILL 2016
The amendment bill seeks to remove
the typographical error in the original
Act and also to remove a redundant
clause regarding abolishing Punjab
Highways Authority.
THE PARKS AND HORTICULTURE
AUTHORITY (AMENDMENT) BILL 2016
The bill proposes to increase penalties
for illegal cutting of trees.
THE PROVINCIAL MOTOR VEHICLES
(AMENDMENT) BILL 2016
The amendments are proposed to
ensure mandatory registration of
vehicles before bringing them on road,
provide for re-registration of vehicles
brought from outside the province and
introduce personalized number plates.
THE PROVINCIAL MOTOR VEHICLES
(AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE 2016 (XIV
of 2016)
The ordinance provides for mandatory
display of security featured number
plates on the motor vehicles and
prescribes penalty for counterfeiting the
number plates.
THE PROVINCIAL MOTOR VEHICLES
(AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE 2016 (XVI
of 2016)
The ordinance provides for making
vehicle fitness certificates prerequisite
for grant of route permit.
THE PUNJAB AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND
DRUG AUTHORITY (AMENDMENT)
ORDINANCE 2016
The amendments seek to widen the
Authority with a purpose to give all
relevant departments of the provincial
government representation in the
Authority.
THE PUNJAB LOCAL GOVERNMENT
(3RD AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE 2016
The amendment seeks to change the
definition of technocrat and to provide
75present
Maximum Members(Average)
47present
Members at End(Average)
20present
Members at Outset(Average)
27Break
Minutes
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PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS ATTENDANCE
Ghulam Murtaza
PML-Z
Bilal Asghar Warraich
PNML
S. Waseem Akhtar
JI
Ch Moonis Elahi
PML
Sardar Shahab-ud-Din
PPPP
S. Iftikhar Gillani
BNAP
2/106/10 0/10
0/100/10 0/10
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
10/10 3/10 0/10 9/10Presiding Time (hh:mm) Presiding Time (hh:mm) Attended Time (hh:mm) Attended Time (hh:mm)
21:21 0:00 0:00 13:34
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HIGHLIGHTS
for the elections on reserved seats as
well as for Chairmen/Vice Chairmen and
Mayors/Deputy Mayors.
THE PUNJAB RESTRICTION ON
EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN
ORDINANCE 2016
The ordinance puts a ban on employing
children under age 15 while restrictions
have also been imposed on employment
of children between the ages 15 and 18.
THE UNIVERSITY OF HOME
ECONOMICS LAHORE BILL 2016
The bill provides legal cover to
conversion of Home Economics College
Lahore into the University of Home
Economics.
Not Taken Up Bills
THE PUNJAB MAINTENANCE OF
PUBLIC ORDER (AMENDMENT) BILL
2016
THE PUNJAB POULTRY PRODUCTION
BILL 2016
Resolutions
The House adopted 10 resolutions
during the session, including five
supplementary resolutions. Meanwhile,
four resolutions were deferred and two
were disposed of due to the absence of
the movers. Besides offering
condolences on the death of social
worker Abdul Sattar Edhi, the House
passed resolutions condemning two
incidents of terrorism in Quetta and
Peshawar and anti-Pakistan statements
of MQM founder Altaf Hussain and
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Through Private Members' resolutions,
the House urged the provincial
government to reduce prices of
medicines, facilitate persons with
disabilities in public transport, set up
Water and Sanitation Agency in
Bahawalpur, repair river banks and clear
the drains in wake of rainy seasons.
Committee Reports/Government
Papers
Various standing committees of the
Punjab Assembly presented their
reports to the House on the matters
referred to them. The government also
presented the performance reports of
the Parks & Horticulture Authority and
the Development Authorities of Multan,
Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi.
The House also approved 34 motions
seeking extension in time for
presentation of the committee reports.
Details of the committee reports are
given below in the table 1.
Adjournment Motions
The lawmakers brought 31 Adjournment
Motions on the matters of urgent public
importance. Three motions were
disposed of due to the absence of
movers while the remaining AMs
remained unanswered and were kept
134
196Starred
Questions
9PrivilegeMotion
5Calling Attention
Notices
UnstarredQuestions
Sr. No. Name of the Standing
Committee Subject of the Report
1 Standing Committee on Home Affairs
The Punjab Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill 2016 (Bill No. 26 of 2016)
2 Standing Committee on Labour and Human Resource
The Punjab Prohibition of Child Labour at Brick Kilns Bill 2016 (Bill No. 9 of 2016)
3 Standing Committee on Finance
The Punjab Revenue Authority (Second Amendment) Bill 2016 (Bill No. 28 of 2016)
4 Committee on Privileges Privilege Motions No. 6, 8, 16, 27, 20 for the year 2016 and No. 27, 12 for the year 2015
5 Standing Committee on Finance
Starred Question No. 7051/16 asked by Mr. Amjad Ali Javaid, MPA (PP-86)
6 Standing Committee on Local Government
Bill No. 25/2016
7 Standing Committee on Local Government
Question No. 2923
Table 1: Standing Committee Reports
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HIGHLIGHTS
2Private Members’Bills Introduced
5GovernmentBills Passed
9Government
Bills Introduced
10ResolutionsAdopted
pending. The government was unable to
respond to these motions throughout
the session. The lawmakers had raised
the matters related to agriculture,
health, education, governance and law &
order. The lawmakers, belonging to the
ruling party PML-N, submitted 12
Adjournment Motions followed by PTI
(10), PML (8) and JI (1).
General Discussion
The House held an-hour-long
discussion on law and order in the
province during last sitting of the
session. The Minister for Law and
Parliamentary Affairs briefed the House
on the efforts of the government to
maintain the rule of law. The Leader of
the Opposition and two other
lawmakers also spoke on the subject
and highlighted the issues related to the
subject.
Calling Attention Notices
PTI and PML legislators submitted five
Calling Attention Notices to draw the
attention of the government towards
incidents of robberies, murders and
street crimes. One of these notices was
disposed of due to the absence of the
mover while the remaining notices were
kept pending by the House on the
request of the government.
Questions
A total of 330 Questions (196 Starred
and 134 Unstarred) were admitted for
answers during the reporting session.
The Rules of Procedure require the
ministers to answer a Starred Question
(SQ) orally as well as in writing while the
Unstarred Questions are to be replied
only in writing. However, the Punjab
Assembly took up only 74 (37%) SQs for
oral answers while 47 SQs were
disposed of due to the absence of the
movers and 27 others were deferred.
Furthermore, at least 17 Questions (nine
Starred and eight Unstarred) were not
replied in writing.
Zero Hour
The lawmakers raised five matters of
public importance during Zero Hour. The
House disposed of two of these matters
while three were deferred for further
consideration. The matters concerning
crime rate in Faisalabad, disease
breakout in Bahar Colony Lahore, traffic
jams near FC College,
commercialization of roads in Wapda
Town and floods in Layyah were
highlighted during Zero Hour.
Privilege Motions
Nine lawmakers (six of PML-N and three
of PTI) submitted Privilege Motions
against various public servants for
misbehaving with them. The House
referred eight of these privilege motions
to the Committee on Privileges to review
the complaints while one motion was
kept pending by the Chair.
Points of Order
The lawmakers raised 89 Points of
Order (POs) consuming two hours and
14 minutes (about 10 percent of the
proceedings' duration). Most of the POs
were concerned with the constituency
matters, political developments and
current affairs.
Quorum
The quorum remained an issue for the
proceedings of Punjab Assembly
throughout 23rd session. The
lawmakers pointed out quorum six
times during five sittings. Once, the
sitting had to be adjourned due to lack
of quorum while on other occasions it
was completed after the ringing of bells
for five minutes.
Protests
The Opposition parties in the Punjab
Assembly staged two walkouts during
the session. These walkouts were
instigated by the murder of a PTI worker
and the alleged partisan behavior of the
Chair. The Opposition also protested on
the floor of the House once against the
silence of the federal cabinet over anti-
Pakistan statements of Indian Prime
Minister. The sole lawmaker of JI staged
an individual walkout as well to protest
against the sale of liquor in the
province.
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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.