KP Assembly Passes Three Bills amid Low Attendance

• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, October 14, 2019: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly addressed most of its agenda amid low attendance of lawmakers on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during 12^th (last) sitting of eighth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for three hours and 41 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 30 minutes due to prayer break and for 10 minutes over lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1426 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 49 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired rest of the sitting.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Fifty-nine legislators (41%) were present at the outset and 23 (16%) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP, PML, PPPP, PML-N and BAP attended the proceedings.
• All four minority lawmakers were present.

Output                                             

• The Minister for Law presented the KP Razmak Cadet College Regulation (Repeal) Ordinance, 2019 in the House.
• The House passed three bills including the KP Legal Aid Bill, 2019,  the KP Promotion, Protection and Enforcement of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the KP Enforcement of Women Property Rights Bill, 2019.
• A bill – the  KP Domestic Violence against Women (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2019 – was referred to the Select Committee.
• The Minister for Law presented the annual report of the Election Commission of Pakistan for the year 2018 and ten reports of the Auditor General of Pakistan on various accounts of the government funds.
• The House referred two motions to concerned committee with directions to present reports on them within a month. These motions seek amendments in KP Assembly Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988 to constitute Business Advisory Committee and enhance members of each Standing Committee from nine to eleven.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up eight out of 12 starred questions while four questions were deferred due to absence of their movers and the concerned ministers. The lawmakers asked six supplementary questions as well.
• The privilege motion of an ANP lawmaker against a WAPDA official was referred to the concerned Committee.
• Two Call Attention Notices remained unaddressed due to early adjournment of sitting after lack of quorum.
• The House held general discussion on Bus Rapid Transit and Billion Tree Tsunami projects. Seven lawmakers – ANP (four), MMA, PPPP and PML-N (one each) – participated in debate for 48 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• Ten lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.
• An MMAP lawmaker protested for one minute on floor of the House against Chair’s attitude who did not allow her to speak on a point of order.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1750 hours which initially led to the suspension of the proceedings for 10 minutes and later prorogation of the session sine die.

 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