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PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY OF PUNJAB

FAFEN PARLIAMENT MONITOR

23RD SESSION

August 22 - September 2, 2016

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

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

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

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

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.