ISLAMABAD: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed four bills including the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2017 in the absence of the chief minister and the opposition leader.
The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) made the observations of House proceedings during the 13th sitting of the 26th session. It made further made the following key observations.
The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and 53 minutes however the proceedings remained suspended for 37 minutes due to the lack of quorum. The sitting started at 11.04 AM as opposed to the scheduled time of 10.00 AM.
The house speaker presided over the sitting for two hours while the deputy speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings. The chief minister and the opposition leader did not attend the sitting. Fifteen provincial legislators (4%) were present at outset and 54 (14%) at the adjournment of the sitting. The parliamentary leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Jamat-e-Islami (JI) attended the sitting.
The House passed the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Punjab Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Land Records Authority Bill 2016 and the University Of Home Economics Lahore Bill 2016. Ten lawmakers debated these bills for an hour and 11 minutes.
The House considered the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2017 after suspending Rule 95 which required the provision of copies of the standing committee report on the bill to members at least three days prior to its consideration.
The House granted a two-month extension to the standing committee on colonies for presentation of its report. As many as eight out of 14 starred questions were responded to during the question hour while the remaining questions were disposed of due to the absence of movers.
Lawmakers also asked 27 supplementary questions. The House deferred two adjournment motions sponsored by PTI and Pakistan Muslim League lawmakers.
