ISLAMABAD, January 08, 2013: Starting an hour and 11 minutes late, the 10th sitting of the 29th session of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly witnessed the passage of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elimination of Custom of Ghag Bill 2012. Six more bills were introduced.
Low attendance continued to persist as only 32 members were present at the start and 37 at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 47 members were present during a time of the sitting.
The Standing Committees on health and agriculture presented reports in the House. Two calling attention notices on lack of boundary wall in two government schools in constituency PK 28 and the death of a person because of police firing in DI Khan were taken up.
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 an hour and 13 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1611 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1500 hours, witnessing a delay of an hour and 11 minutes.
- The Speaker chaired the entire sitting. The Deputy Speaker also attended the sitting.
- The Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the parliamentary leaders of PMLN, PML, PPPS and PPPP did not attend the sitting.
- Only 32 members (26% of the total membership) were present at the outset, while 37 (30%) were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 47 members (38%) were present during a point of sitting.
- One minority member attended the sitting.
- Seven members applied for leave.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Six starred questions appearing on the agenda were raised and responded to by the relevant ministries. Additionally, 14 supplementary questions were asked.
- Two calling attention notices on lack of boundary wall in two government schools in constituency PK 28 and the death of a person because of police firing in DI Khan were taken up.
- An adjournment motion on non-release of salaries and non-regularization of homeopathic and hakims hired in 2007 was also taken up.
Output
- A bill – The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elimination of Custom of Ghag Bill 2012 – was passed by the house.
- Six bills – the Provincial Services Academy (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Bill 2013, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hotels and Restaurants (Amendment) Bill 2013, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Travel Agencies (Amendment) Bill 2013, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourist Guides (Amendment) Bill 2013, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hydel Development Organization (Amendment) Bill 2013, and The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendment) Ordinance 2012 – were introduced..
- Two standing committee reports were presented in the house. One of these was presented by the Standing committee on Health and the other by the Standing Committee on Agriculture.
Order and institutionalization
- One point of order was raised which consumed one minute of the sitting time.
- No incident of protest, walkout or boycott was observed during the sitting.
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