ISLAMABAD, December 23, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) took up entire business appearing on its ‘Orders of the Day’ on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the tenth session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for one hour and 14 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1429 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was absent.
- The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
- As many as 40 legislators (28%) were present at the start and 62 (43%) at the end of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary Leaders of ANP, PML-Q, BAP and PPPP attended the sitting.
- Three out of four minority members were present.
Output
- Moved by ANP lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution to condemn murder of a political worker in Mingora, Swat. Three lawmakers spoke on it for ten minutes.
- Moved by PPPP lawmaker, the House adopted another resolution condemning Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir and inside India. Three lawmakers spoke on it for ten minutes.
- The House adopted another resolution which was moved by PTI lawmaker urging the government to install biometric attendance system for prisons inside the province.
- The Minister for Law introduced three government bills including the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Rescue Services (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Power Crushers (Installation, Operation and Regulation) Bill, 2019 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
- The Minister for Law presented three reports in the House including two biannually monitoring reports on the implementation status of National Finance Commission (NFC) Awards and the annual report of the provincial Ombudsman for year 2017.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Law Minister responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CANs) of MMAP lawmaker regarding cases of deaths inside prisons in Peshawar. Another CAN appearing on agenda remained unaddressed due to mover’s absence.
- The Chair rejected a Privilege Motion (PM) of ANP lawmaker while another PM remained unaddressed due to absence of its mover.
Order and Institutionalization
- A lawmaker spoke on Points of Order consuming four minutes of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on December 24, 2019 (Tuesday) 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