ISLAMABAD, January 11, 2013: Starting an hour and 20 minute late, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s 11th sitting of the ongoing 29th session which met for two hour and 57 minutes adopted three resolutions on Friday.
The first resolution called upon the federal government to raise voice against ban on hijab in some European countries, the other asked for establishing passport offices in Nowshera and Charsadda, and the third called for incentives for the people who go on Umrah.
Of the five bills on the agenda, four were deferred while one was withdrawn.
The house took up two calling attention notices on less number of teachers in district Kohistan and non-payment of promised ransom by WAPDA to the employees who had been abducted in district Tank while on duty.
An adjournment motion on electricity and gas outages in Peshawar and its adjacent areas was debated for 16 minutes.
The sitting was chaired by the Speaker. The Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the parliamentary leaders of PMLN, PML, PPPS and PPPP did not attend the sitting.
Members’ participation in House proceedings
- The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly met for two hours and 57 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1620 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1500 hours, witnessing a delay of an hour and 20 minutes.
- The Speaker chaired the entire sitting. The Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the parliamentary leaders of PMLN, PML, PPPS and PPPP did not attend the sitting.
- Only 42 members were present at the outset, while 37 were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 50 members were present during a point of sitting.
- One minority member attended the sitting.
- Ten members applied for leave.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Five of the eight starred questions appearing on the agenda were responded to by the relevant ministries. Additionally, 10 supplementary questions were asked.
- Two calling attention notices were taken up. The first notice was on less number of teachers in district Kohistan affecting the standard of education and the other raised the issue of non-payment of ransom by WAPDA to the employees who had been abducted in district Tank while on duty. According to the notice, WAPDA initially askedtheir familie s to pay the ransom which would be compensated but now it is not paying to the affectees.
- An adjournment motion about electricity and gas outages in Peshawar and its adjacent areas was debated for 16 minutes.
- Two questions of privilege by members were referred to the Standing Committees.
Output
- Four of the five bills appearing on the agenda were deferred while the 5th was withdrawn.
- The house adopted three of the six resolutions. One of the resolutions called upon the federal government to raise voice against ban on hijab in some European countries, the other asked for establishing passport offices in Nowshera and Charsadda, and the third called for incentives for the people who go on Umrah.
- Further, one resolution about quota for the students of Swat, Kalam, and Behrain in the medical and engineering colleges of the province was sent to the standing committee.
- Two resolutions were withdrawn.
Order and institutionalization
- Eight points of order consumed 17 minutes of the sitting time.
- Three lawmakers staged an 11-minute walkout.
Transparency
- Agenda for the Day were available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of KP Assembly proceedings conducted by PAIMAN Alumni Trust, a member organization of FAFEN