Punjab PA approves 129 laws in three years

Lawmakers present 2,365 resolutions, pass 38 bills

LAHORE:

As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is about to complete its third parliamentary year in Punjab Assembly, a total of 129 draft laws were approved in three parliamentary years of the government.

A total of 38 bills were passed by the House. The government and the opposition members, especially the women members, kept trying to outdo each other in submitting resolutions.

A total of 2,365 resolutions were tabled in the three parliamentary years. Most of these resolutions were declared “unnecessary” and 606 resolutions were approved and added to the agenda, while 94 were passed by the House.

In the first parliamentary year, 950 resolutions were submitted, in the second parliamentary year 727 and in the third parliamentary year 688 resolutions were submitted out of which 292 were approved by the Assembly Secretariat in the first year.

As per the documents obtained from Punjab Assembly, a total of 34 sessions were held in the three parliamentary years and a total of 129 days of proceedings were held in the House.

In the first parliamentary year, there were 12 sessions in which a total of 102 days were counted while the proceedings of the House lasted 77 days.

In the second parliamentary year, a total of 100 days were counted for 11 sessions while the proceeding conducted 67 days.

In the third parliamentary year, due to the coronavirus epidemic, a total of 89 days were counted in 13 sessions while 59 days of proceedings were conducted in the House.

In all three parliamentary years, a total of 7,315 marked questions were submitted by the members of the parties present in the House out of which 4,452 questions were approved by the Assembly Secretariat for inclusion in the agenda. However, a total of 2,425 questions were answered in the House.

In the first parliamentary year, 420 questions were answered, in the second parliamentary year 1,532 questions were answered and in the third parliamentary year, 473 questions were answered while 834 questions remained unanswered.

According to documents obtained by the Express Tribune, a total of 831 notices were submitted by members of the Assembly on the extraordinary and important events taking place in the province during the three parliamentary years of the Punjab Assembly. Of these notices, 506 were approved and 138 were answered in the House.

A total of 125 government laws were introduced in three parliamentary years, of which 74 were passed. In the first parliamentary year, 31 bills were introduced by the government of which 16 were passed.

In the second parliamentary year, a total of 34 bills were introduced in the House (including 4 laws pending last year) and a total of 38 bills were passed. In the third and current parliamentary year, the highest number of 60 bills was introduced. However, only 20 have been approved.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said, “it is a matter of great pleasure that we have moved to the new building of Punjab Assembly in the third parliamentary year. There is still some work to be done which will be completed by next parliamentary year.”

He said the performance of the Punjab Assembly is much better than the assemblies of all other provinces, the way the government and the opposition trust me to run the House is a matter of pride for me. He said that the performance of the Assembly would be further improved in the next parliamentary year.

Provincial Law Minister Basharat Raja said record legislation has been enacted in all three parliamentary years. “The government and opposition benches have played an effective role in the performance of the assembly.”

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member Punjab Assembly and Information Secretary Azma Bukhari said three parliamentary years were about to conclude but so far neither the standing committees have been made functional nor the Public Accounts Committee has come into existence.

“PML-N is the largest opposition party in the Assembly, but on many occasions our views have been ignored instead of being valued,” she remarked.

She further said PML-N in its tenure enacted the legislation that the province and the people needed, what the present government is doing is obvious to all.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2021.