LAHORE: At least two-thirds of the Punjab Assembly members opted for keeping mum even during the budget debate as they did not contribute a single word in favour of or against the budget proposals in its recently concluded session.

According to a report compiled by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), the House witnessed low interest of lawmakers in the budget debate as 235 out of 368 legislators did not contribute to the discussion.

Of the 133 members who took part, 95 were male and 38 female. The female lawmakers were found to be more active as compared to their male counterparts, as 50 per cent (38 out of 76) of them expressed their views on the budgetary proposals while only 33pc (95 out of 292) males contributed to the general discussion.

The female lawmakers consumed four hours and 44 minutes while their male counterparts took 18 hours and 36 minutes to deliberate over the provincial budget.

Fafen says 235 out of 368 legislators didn’t express views on proposals

Out of 38 participating female MPAs, 30 were from the ruling PML-N, six from the PTI and one each from the PML-Q and PPPP.

Likewise, 76 of the 95 male members debating the budget were from the treasury, followed by PTI (10), PML-Q (three), PPPP and PML-Z (two each), JI (one) and an independent lawmaker.

Among the non-participating lawmakers, 204 were from the PML-N, 14 from the PTI, five of the PPPP, four each of the PML-Q and independent MPAs, two of Pakistan National Muslim League, and once each of the Bahawalpur National Awami Party and PML-Z.

BILLS: Of the 11 draft bills that appeared on the Orders of the Day during the session, the House passed 10. Three each related to Jhang, Sahiwal and DG Khan universities, and vehicular transport. One each to infrastructure development cess, stamp duty, mass transit authority, and the Punjab Finance Bill 2015.

One of the bills – the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Bill 2015 – was held for further consultation.

The 15th session had 13 sittings that started with an average delay of 1.07 hours, while each sitting lasted for 3.15 hours on average.

The chief minister attended two sittings for 3pc of the proceedings’ time. His presence marked his return to the House after a complete year. He last attended the first sitting of 9th session (budget session) last year.

The leader of the opposition attended 11 sittings for 35pc of the proceedings’ time while the finance minister was present in 11 sittings for 79pc of the total time.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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