ISLAMABAD, May 2, 2017: The fifth sitting of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly was adjourned early on Tuesday due to the protest by opposition female lawmakers over “unjustified” distribution of development funds, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet.
The House did not take up its scheduled business except for an Adjournment Motion.
Following are key observations of the proceedings of 24th session:
Members’ Participation
- The KP Assembly met for 57 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1524 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- Thirty-four lawmakers (27%) were present at the start and 46 (37%) at the end of sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Parliamentary leaders of ANP, JI and QWP were present.
- One minority member attended the sitting.
Output
- The entire agenda appearing on Orders of the Day except an Adjournment Motion (AM) remained unaddressed due to early adjournment of the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as two out of 15 Starred Questions were responded to by the government. The lawmakers asked four Supplementary Questions.
- The House discussed an AM to revise the scale of staff at Union and Village Councils. Six lawmakers, two of QWP and one each of PPPP, JI, ANP and PML-N, spoke on the motion for 18 minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- Two Points of Order consumed five minutes of the proceedings.
- The female lawmakers of the opposition parties protested twice for seven minutes over “unjustified” distribution of development funds. Their protest led to an early adjournment of the sitting at 1621 hours, leaving most of the agenda unaddressed.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day was available for the legislators, observers and other stakeholders.
- Attendance of lawmakers was not available for 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