ISLAMABAD, July 22, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) adopted five supplementary resolutions after suspension of the rules, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during 13th sitting of seventh session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for two hours and 14 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1117 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Thirty-two legislators (26%) were present at the outset and 50 (40%) at the end of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders did not attend the proceedings.
- All three minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House passed the KP Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2019b which was earlier introduced in the House on July 18, 2019.
- Advisor to Chief Minister on Elementary and Secondary Education introduced the KP Mines Safety, Inspection and Regulation Bill, 2019, the KP Lissaile-Wal Mahroom Foundation (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the KP Essential Personnel (Registration) (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the House.
- The House adopted five supplementary resolutions which demanded to ban vendors outside the hospitals in Peshawar, provide internship opportunities to students in government departments, ban illegal weapons, check use of plastic bags and start flights between Peshawar and Lahore. These resolutions were sponsored by PTI lawmakers and none of the adopted resolutions was on the list of business of the House.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up seven out of 16 starred questions. In addition, the lawmakers asked seven supplementary questions.
- Advisor to Chief Minister on Elementary and Secondary Education responded to two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). These notices urged the government to reconstruct a government school and conduct inquiry on alleged smuggling of books in Upper Dir District.
- Sponsored by an MMAP lawmaker, the Chair admitted an adjournment Motion for debate which was regarding out of schools children in the province.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as three lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming eight minutes.
- The entire opposition staged a walkout from the proceedings of the House for five minutes against non-consideration of amendments proposed in the KP Civil Servant (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
- A PPPP female lawmaker held a token walkout during the question hour against non-reply to her questions.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on August 5, 2019 (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