ISLAMABAD, January 15, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) transacted most of its agenda and passed three government bills, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 8th sitting of the 15th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for two hours and 15 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1100 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire proceedings while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Fifty-one (35%) legislators were present at the start and 55 (38%) at the end of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of ANP, MMAP and BAP attended the sitting.
- Three out of four minority members were present.
Output
- The House passed the KP Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill,2021 which was regarding the payment of electricity, gas and telephone charges pertaining to the official residence of ministers by administration department of government out of imprest money.
- Two other government bills were also passed by the House which were the KP Domestic Violence against Women (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2021 and KP Board of Technical and Commerce Education Bill, 2021.
- The Minister for Law laid the KP Sugar Factories Control (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.
- The House deferred the KP Certain Fiscal Laws Bill, 2021 and the KP Control of Narcotics (Amendment) Bill, 2021 due to the absence of movers.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up three out of six starred questions while remaining three questions were lapsed due to the absence of movers.
- Minister for Law responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) which was related to provision of permanent building to Government Primary School in Union Council Kanjoo, Swat.
- Another CAN on the agenda was lapsed due to mover’s absence.
- The Minister for Labor responded to a privilege motion of an ANP lawmaker and it was disposed of after his reply.
- The House adopted a report of the Public Account Committee on account of the KP government for the year 2015-16.
Order and Institutionalization
- The House was adjourned to meet again on January 18, 2021(Monday) at 1400 Hours.
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 the direct observation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly proceedings conducted by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted