ISLAMABAD, October 24, 2017: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly passed four bills amid low attendance of lawmakers on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during 11th sitting of the 26th session:
Members’ Participation
- The KP Assembly met for three hours.
- The proceedings were suspended for 25 minutes due to prayer break.
- The sitting started at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
- The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the entire sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was not present.
- As many as 32 lawmakers (26%) were present at the start and 30 (24%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of JI and PML-N attended the sitting.
- One minority lawmaker was present.
Output
- The House passed four bills including the KP Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (Amendment) Bill, 2017; the KP Minerals Sector Governance Bill, 2017; the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the KP Public Service (Amendment) Bill.
- The Chair referred the KP Control of Narcotic Substances Bill, 2017 to relevant committee after its introduction.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as eight out of 15 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings. In addition, three lawmakers asked four supplementary questions.
- The House took up a Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding lack of facilities at Police Housing Colony Abbottabad.
- Another CAN regarding overcharging by transporters in Kohat was lapsed due to absence of mover.
Order and Institutionalization
- Lawmakers spoke on three Points of Order consuming six minutes of the proceedings.
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 proceedings conducted by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted