ISLAMABAD, October 21, 2016: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly witnessed low attendance of lawmakers and was marked by lack of quorum during the 11th sitting of its ongoing 21st session on Friday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
The sitting began with just 20 lawmakers (16%) present at the start and 26 (21%) at the time of adjournment.
Following are some key observations of the Assembly proceedings:
Members’ Participation
- The KP Assembly met for 62 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- 20 lawmakers (16%) were present at the start and maximum 26 (21%) at the end of the sitting.
- The Speaker was not present and the Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting whereas the Opposition Leader was present for 39 minutes.
- Parliamentary leaders of QWP, ANP and PML-N were present.
- Two minority members attended the sitting.
- Fourteen members applied for leave.
Output
- Introduced by Minister for Social Welfare and Women Empowerment, the House passed the KP Commission on the Status of Women Bill, 2016.
- The House did not consider KP Lissaail-e-Wal Mahroom Foundation (Amendment) Bill, 2016 due to early adjournment of sitting over quorum issue.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House neither observed Question Hour nor took two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) due to early adjournment of sitting.
Order and Institutionalization
- PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1551 hours which led to the suspension of the sitting for 21 minutes. The same lawmaker pointed out the quorum again at 1620 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting till Monday.
- Four minutes were consumed on a Point of Order.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and other stakeholders.
- The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the KP Assembly proceedings conducted by United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted