ISLAMABAD, April 12, 2019: The sitting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly was adjourned amid lack of quorum and opposition’s walkout from the proceedings, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Friday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 14th sitting of the sixth session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for an hour and 22 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1426 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
- The Leader of the House was not present.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting
- As many as 49 MPAs (40%) were present at the outset while 23 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of ANP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
- Only one out of three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Science and Information Technology moved the KP Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which was passed by the House. The bill was earlier introduced in the House on March 27, 2019.
- He also introduced the KP Education Monitoring Authority Bill, 2019.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House did not hold discussion on the price hike, Public Sector Development Program and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
- Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Science and Information Technology responded to two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding non-provision of funds to development programs of a district and financial corruption in an education program of the province. These CANs were raised by lawmakers belonging to MMAP and ANP respectively.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as two lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming six minutes of the proceedings.
- The opposition walked out from the proceedings at 1541 hours after four-minute protest against the unsatisfactory reply by the Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Science and Information Technology about constituting a committee to probe financial embezzlement in an education program of the province.
- An MMAP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1542 hours that led to the ringing of bells for two minutes. The quorum did not complete after the bells and the House was adjourned to meet again on April 15, 2019 (Monday) at 1330 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ is available to the legislators, observers and others.
- The attendance of lawmakers is 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