ISLAMABAD, December 30, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed two bills and adopted six resolutions, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the tenth session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for two hours and 53 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1427 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leader of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 45 (31%) legislators were present at the start and 42(29%) at the end of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of BAP, ANP and PML attended the sitting.
- All four minority members were present.
Output
- The House passed two government bills including the KP Lissail-e-Wal Mahroom Foundation (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the KP Essential Personnel (Registration) (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
- Moved by the Minister for Law, the House unanimously adopted a resolution demanding the Parliament to establish National Commission for Interfaith harmony.
- The House adopted five supplementary resolutions demanding to end gas load-shedding issue in the province, restore Pakistan Television set up in Abbottabad, fulfil promises made with the local people before construction of road from Mansehra to Takot, handover administrative affairs of FATA House in Islamabad to KP Assembly and give representation to people of Kalash, Shaikh and Barorai communities in Frontier Constabulary.
- The House referred a resolution of a PTI lawmaker to a Special Committee suggesting an increase in imprisonment period of those involved in cases of sexual abuse of children.
- The Minister for Finance presented two statutory reports related to KP Revenue Authority for the year 2016-17 and 2017-18.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House deferred the Question Hour to discuss the cases of child abuse in the province.
- The Minister for Law responded to a Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding newly promoted officers of Management Cadre waiting for their new assignments for the last eight months.
- Another CAN on the agenda was dropped due to the absence of mover which was regarding regularization of teachers working on contract basis in the Province.
- The House concluded debate on an Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding traffic congestion at University Road, Peshawar. The Minister for Finance concluded debate on it while an ANP lawmaker also spoke on it consuming overall 20 minutes of the proceedings.
- The Chair admitted an AM of MMAP lawmaker for debate which was about share of province in the electricity revenue.
- The House passed a motion to constitute Special Committee for suggesting improvement in existing laws to check sexual abuse cases. Nine lawmakers also participated in debate regarding alleged sexual abuse of a 10-year-old boy in Mansehra and spoke for an hour and two minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as ten lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.
- All lawmakers in the House stood for one minute on their respective seats to condemn the incident of child abuse in Mansehra.
- A PML-N lawmaker protested in front of dais of the Chair for one minute against delay in Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on January 2, 2020 (Thursday) 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 direct observation of the KP Assembly proceeding conducted by United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted