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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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