ISLAMABAD, December 28, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) transacted half of its agenda and was adjourned due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the 26th sitting of 20th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and 40 minutes.
- The sitting started at 02:40 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
- The deputy speaker presided over the entire proceedings in the absence of speaker.
- The leader of the House (chief minister) did not attend the sitting.
- The leader of the opposition attended the entire sitting.
- As many as 41 MPAs (28 percent) were present at the outset and 34 (23 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- Parliamentary leaders of ANP and PML-N were present.
- Three out of four minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up three out of nine starred questions while the remaining six questions were lapsed due to absence of relevant lawmakers.
- An adjournment motion of an ANP lawmaker lapsed due to his absence. The motion was regarding law and order situation in Peshawar and police highhandedness in the city.
- Minister for labor responded to calling attention notice (CAN) regarding non-payment to people of Dara Adam Khel whose properties were destroyed during years of conflict.
- Another CAN regarding vacant seats in a primary school of Peshawar was not taken up due to absence of relevant lawmaker.
- Seven lawmakers including the Minister for finance debated an adjournment motion regarding non-payment of honorarium to employees of attached departments of provincial secretariat announced during the provincial budget and disparity in their salaries. They spoke on it for 52 minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- Five lawmakers spoke on points of order for ten minutes.
- A lawmaker belonging to PPPP pointed out quorum at 04:15 pm following which the chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting and the House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, December 31, 2021 at 10:00 am.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available for the legislators, observers and the media.
- Attendance of the lawmakers was not available for the observers and the media.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the KP Assembly proceedings conducted by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions excepted