ISLAMABAD, October 9, 2015: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly witnessed low attendance of lawmakers and was marked by lack of quorum during the 65th sitting of its ongoing 15th session on Friday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
The sitting started five minutes behind the schedule with 15 lawmakers (12%) present at the start and 35 (28%) at the time of adjournment. JUI-F lawmaker along with PTI member pointed out the quorum at 1511 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting for 34 minutes.
The quorum was pointed out again by JUI-F minority lawmaker at 1552 hours which resulted in suspension of the sitting for 66 minutes.
The House witnessed introduction of the KP Medical Teaching Institute Reforms (Second Amendment) Bill 2015 while two other bills– the KP Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill 2015 and the Provincial Services Academy (KP Amendment) Bill 2015– were not considered by the House.
The House adopted three resolutions about right of vote to overseas Pakistanis, checking misbehavior with passengers of international flights and supporting Prime Minister’s call for resolving Kashmir issue in UNGA.
Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The KP Assembly met for three hours and five minutes.
- The sitting started at 1505 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- Fifteen lawmakers (12%) were present at the start and 35 (28%) at the end of the sitting.
- A maximum of 40 (32%) members attended the sitting.
- Entire sitting was chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
- The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
- Parliamentary leaders of QWP, PML-N, AJIP and JI were present in the sitting.
- Two minority members attended the sitting.
- Sixteen members applied for leave.
Output
- The House witnessed introduction of the KP Medical Teaching Institute Reforms (Second Amendment) Bill 2015 while two other bills– the KP Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill 2015 and the Provincial Services Academy (KP Amendment) Bill 2015– were not considered by the House.
- The House adopted three resolutions about right of vote to overseas Pakistanis, checking misbehavior with passengers of international flights and supporting Prime Minister’s call for resolving Kashmir issue in UNGA.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Two out of ten questions appearing on the agenda were taken up and responded by the relevant department. In addition, lawmakers raised two supplementary questions.
- The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs); one regarding rehabilitation of flood victims in Chitral and the other about providing security to the minority community in the province.
Order and Institutionalization
- Two points of order consumed six minutes of the sitting.
- PML-N, JUI-F and ANP lawmakers walked out of the House for 68 minutes over absence of relevant authorities to answer the questions on the agenda.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Information on legislators’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.
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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the KP Assembly proceedings conducted by Untied Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.