ISLAMABAD, December 21, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed a government bill amid walkout by the Opposition lawmakers on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during fifth sitting of fourth session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for two hours and 17 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1046 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- As many as 45 members (36%) were present at the start and 30 (24%) at the end of the sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
- The Leaders of the House did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition was present in the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders MMAP and ANP attended the sitting.
- Two out of three minority members were present.
Output
- The Minister for Law introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees of the Elementary & Secondary Education Department (Appointment and Regularization of Services) (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
- Another bill – the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2018 – was passed by the House in the absence of opposition lawmakers who staged walkout for not referring the same bill to the Select Committee. .
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up ten out of 15 Starred Questions while five questions were lapsed due to absence of movers.
- Two Calling Attention Notices and an adjournment motion were not considered by the House.
Order and Institutionalization
- The entire opposition staged walkout from the proceedings at — hours against the Chair’s attitude and did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.
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