ISLAMABAD, February 18, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 on Tuesday amidst protest by the opposition parties against the ministerial absence, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of the 11th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for 24 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1523 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of Opposition attended the entire proceedings.
- As many as 60 (41%) legislators were present at the start and 75 (52%) at the end of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PMLQ, PMLN, MMAP and BAP attended the sitting.
- Three out of four minority members were present.
Output
- Introduced by Minister for Law, the House passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 with majority. The bill was not referred to the standing committee for deliberations.
- The Minister for Law introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Charities (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as 14 starred question appearing on agenda lapsed due to absence of their movers who were on protest during the Question Hour.
- The House did not take up two Privilege Motions, an Adjournment Motion and two Call Attention Notices due to absence of their movers.
Order and Institutionalization
- The opposition parties protested against the ministerial absence and the government’s attitude towards the House business from 1528 hours until the end of the sitting at 1547 hours.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on February 21, 2020 (Friday) at 1000 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the KP Assembly proceeding conducted by United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted