Free and Fair Election Networkwww.fafen.org I www.openparliament.pk

PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY OF PUNJAB

FAFEN PARLIAMENT MONITOR

22ND (BUDGET) SESSION

June 13-29, 2016

HIGHLIGHTS

34Hours & 21 Minutes

SessionDuration

11ActualSittings

WorkingDays

17

SessionNumber

22

The Punjab Assembly passed the

Annual Budget 2016-17 and the

Supplementary Budget 2015-16

during 22nd session which

continued from June 13 to June

29, 2016. It is ninth consecutive

budget of the Punjab presented

by PML-N which is ruling the

province since 2008 and was

reelected to the government in

2013.

The session began with the

presentation of the Annual and

Supplementary Budgets on June

13, 2016. After a two-day gap

following the budget speech, the

House commenced discussion

on the budget which continued

for four sittings and was

concluded by the Finance

Minister on June 22. The House

took next two days to approve 43

Demands for Grants which

preceded the passage of the

Punjab Finance Bill 2016 on June

27. The opposition lawmakers

moved six Cut Motions against

the budget allocated for Police,

Health Services, Education,

Agriculture, Development and

Miscellaneous Departments;

however, all were rejected by a

majority vote. The remaining

Demands for Grants were

approved by the House under

Rule 144 (4) of the Rules of

Procedure of the Provincial

Assembly of the Punjab, 1997.

According to the said Rule, all

questions outstanding on last of

the days allotted for voting on

Demands for Grants are put

before the House for disposal.

The last two sittings of the

session were consumed by

discussion and voting on

Supplementary Budget 2015-16.

The opposition also moved three

Cut Motions on Supplementary

Demands for Grants.

As many as 98 out of 367 sitting

lawmakers (26%) took part in

deliberations on the budget

during the session while the

remaining 269 lawmakers did not

participate in any of the

discussions. The lawmakers

spent 23 hours and 56 minutes

Only 26% lawmakerstake part in budgetdeliberations

Chief Minister attends three out of eleven sittingsof budget session

The Assembly amends local government law, paystribute to Sabri

HIGHLIGHTS

(70% of session's duration) on

general discussion and

discussions on Demands for

Grants, Finance Bill and

Supplementary Budget. Among

98 participating members, 27

(28%) were female lawmakers

who consumed a quarter of the

time (six hours) spent on

discussions. The main

opposition party PTI's 15

lawmakers consumed the largest

portion of the discussions (ten

hours and two minutes) followed

by ruling party PML-N whose 71

lawmakers took ten hours. Five

lawmakers each of PPPP and

PML spoke for 102 minutes and

87 minutes respectively while

one lawmaker each of JI and

PML-Z also consumed 36

minutes and nine minutes

respectively. Nearly 77% of PML-

N lawmakers and half of the PTI

members abstained from taking

part in the budget discussions.

Apart from the annual and

supplementary budget

statements, the Finance Minister

also laid the Schedule of

Authorized Expenditure for the

year 2016-2017, the

Supplementary Schedule of

Authorized Expenditure for the

year 2015-2016 and the

notifications relating to the

amendments in the Second

Schedule of the Punjab Sales Tax

on Services Act 2012 and the

Rules made under the Act ibid.

The House also took up

legislative and non-legislative

business during the session

besides the budget process

which continued for entire

session while one sitting (fourth)

was reserved to pay respect to

late lawmaker Muhammad

Siddique Khan of PTI who died of

cardiac arrest on June 19, 2016.

Eleven lawmakers – PML-N

(seven), PTI (three) and PML

(one) – offered their tribute to the

deceased colleague consuming

22 minutes of the proceedings.

Besides the Punjab Finance Bill

2016, the House also passed the

Punjab Local Government (Fourth

Amendment) Bill, 2016 while

211present

Maximum Members(Average)

83present

Members at End(Average)

43present

Members at Outset(Average)

19Break Time

Minutes

INDPTIPML-N

Non-Participating Members

238/309 15/30 3/85/5

PPPP

PML PNMLPML-Z

3/8 2/3 1/2

BNAP

1/1

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

10/11 3/11 1/11

0/110/11 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

11/11 6/11 3/11 10/11Presiding Time (hh:mm) Presiding Time (hh:mm) Attended Time (hh:mm) Attended Time (hh:mm)

29:18 4:19 1:58 17:23

HIGHLIGHTS

three bills – the Punjab Civil

Courts (Amendment) Ordinance

2016, the Punjab Blood

Transfusion Safety Bill, 2016, the

Punjab Revenue Authority

(Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 –

were introduced. The amendment

in the local government law

empowers a rural Union Council

with urban characteristics to levy

property tax within its areas in

addition to other urban local

governments. The discussion on

this amendment bill consumed

40 minutes while six members

participated in it. The House

suspended the requirement of

mandatory three days' notice

period under Rule 115 of the

Rules of Procedure to take up

and adopt a unanimous

resolution condemning the killing

of renowned Qawaal Amjad

Fareed Sabri in Karachi.

The Standing Committees on

Live Stock and Home Affairs each

presented their reports on two

bills while the Committee on

Privileges laid its report on the

Privilege Motions No.1 and 25 of

2015 and 4 of 2016. The House

also granted two-month

extension to Committee on

Privileges and standing

committees on Colonies,

Communication & Works, Food,

Services & General

Administration and Housing,

Urban Development & Public

Health Engineering for

presentation of their reports on

different matters referred to

them.

The longest sitting of the session

continued for four hours and 50

minutes while the shortest for 35

minutes. The proceedings

continued undisrupted

throughout the session except

once when the House took a 19-

minutes break to wait for the

Finance Minister during sixth

sitting. A PPPP lawmaker once

pointed out quorum but it was

found complete on headcount.

The Chief Minister attended three

sittings for only an hour and 58

minutes while the Leader of the

Opposition came to ten sittings

and spent 17 hours and 23

minutes (51% of session's

duration). The Finance Minister

also attended ten sittings but

remained present for 27 hours

and 34 minutes (80% of session's

duration). The Speaker was

present in all sittings and

presided over 85% of the

proceedings (29 hours and 18

minutes) while the Deputy

Speaker was present in six

sittings and chaired 13%

proceedings (four hours and 19

minutes). The Panel of

Chairpersons' member also

presided over the sitting once for

25 minutes. On average, each

sitting was attended by 211

lawmakers including five minority

legislators. The highest

attendance was recorded during

first sitting when 268 members

were present while the lowest

during sixth sitting when 192

members attended the

proceedings. The parliamentary

leader of PPPP attended ten

sittings followed by JI leader

(three sittings) and PML-Z leader

(one sitting) whilst the leaders of

PML, BNA-P and PNML did not

23

298Non-Participating

98ParticipatingMembers

367Sitting

Members

Hours and 56 Minutes

BudgetDiscussion

HIGHLIGHTS

come to the House throughout

the session.

The lawmakers submitted 12

Adjournment Motions, of which

only two regarding Punjab Rural

Roads Programme and increased

shop rents in Sargodha were

taken up. The former was

disposed of following the

government's reply while the later

was referred to the relevant

committee. The remaining ten

motions concerning the

education, health and housing

were pended for next session.

The legislators also raised six

Questions of Privilege (five by

PML-N and one by PTI) during

the session. The House referred

five of these to the Committee on

Privileges while one was kept

pending.

The session witnessed nine

instances of protests or

walkouts. Entire opposition

walked out from the House

during the budget speech of the

Finance Minister while it also

protested on floor of the House

against absence of the Health

Minister and unsatisfactory

response of the Education

Minister during seventh and

eighth sittings. PTI also staged a

token walkout singly during sixth

sitting against remarks of a PML-

N lawmaker on proposed protest

by the party after Eid. The

individual lawmakers belonging

to PTI, PPPP, JI and PML-N also

staged walkouts to register

protest against ignoring their

respective constituencies in

budget schemes and being

denied time for speaking on floor

of the House.

The lawmakers spoke on 21

Points of Order during the

session consuming 23 minutes.

Though reserved for matters

related to the Rules, the Points of

Order were used to talk about

various other issues as well.

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.

1ResolutionsAdopted

2GovernmentBills Passed

3Government

Bills Introduced

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