ISLAMABAD, February 21, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed two government bills and adopted a resolution on Friday amidst protest by the opposition parties against the ministerial absence, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the 11th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for 23 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1106 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of Opposition attended the entire proceedings.
- As many as 50 (34%) legislators were present at the start and 70 (48%) at the end of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of ANP, PML-N, MMAP and PPPP attended the sitting.
- All four minority members were present in the sitting.
Output
- Moved by the Minister for Local Government, the House passed two bills including the KP Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the KP Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
- The Ministers for Local Government also introduced the Kaghan Development Authority Bill, 2020 and the National Disaster Management (KP) (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in the House.
- The House adopted a report of Standing Committee on Health which was presented by a member of the Committee.
- Tabled by a PTI lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution to condemn the occupation on the territories of Azerbaijan by Armenian forces.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House did not observe the question hour due to the protest of the opposition while two adjournment motions and as many calling attention notices and privilege motions were also not considered.
Order and Institutionalization
- The opposition protested during the proceedings for 18 minutes against the ministerial absence and the government’s attitude towards the House.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on February 24, 2020 (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 direct observation of the KP Assembly proceeding conducted by United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted