ISLAMABAD, December 8, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) transacted most of its agenda on Tuesday and passed three government bills, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the 15th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and 26 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1515 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker was not present.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Fifty-five (38%) legislators were present at the start and 65 (45%) at the end of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary Leaders of ANP, PML-N, BAP and MMAP attended the sitting.
- All four minority members were present.
Output
- The House passed three government bills including the KP Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the KP Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill, 2020 and the KP School Bags (Limitation of Weight) Bill, 2020.
- Two government bills were also introduced in the House which were the KP Universities (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the KP Rehabilitation of Minorities (Victim of Terrorism) Endowment Fund Bill, 2020.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up five out of nine starred questions while remaining four questions were lapsed due to absence of movers. In addition, the lawmakers asked three supplementary questions.
- Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Communication and Works responded to a Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding non-completion of roads under Dir District Development
- Another CAN on the agenda was not taken up due to the absence of its mover.
- The Chair referred the privilege motion of a PTI lawmaker to the relevant committee which was against Station House Officer of a police station in Peshawar.
- Five lawmakers debated an adjournment motion for 40 minutes which was regarding reported incidents of sexual harassment in universities. Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Higher Education concluded debate on it and spoke for seven minutes.
- The Chair deferred debate on another adjournment motion following the request of its mover. The motion was regarding administrative affairs and mismanagement at Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar.
Order and Institutionalization
- The House was adjourned to meet again on December 11, 2020 (Friday) at 1000 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 the direct observation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly proceedings conducted by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted