ISLAMABAD, January 26, 2017: Starting 22 minutes behind the scheduled time, the second sitting of 22nd session of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was adjourned due to lack of quorum on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network.
Thirty-five (28%) legislators were present at the start and 22 (18%) at the adjournment of sitting while none of the agenda item was taken up by the House.
Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The KP Assembly met for an hour and 39 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1522 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The House had a prayer break for 30 minutes.
- Thirty-five lawmakers (28%) were present at the start and 22 (18%) at the end of the sitting.
- Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Chief Minister was not present while the Opposition Leader attended the sitting for an hour and 11 minutes.
- Parliamentary leaders of all political parties were present.
- Two minority members attended the sitting.
Output
- The House did not consider the KP Planning & Monitoring Cell, Irrigation Employees (Regularization of Services) Bill, 2017 and KP Employees of Health Department (Regularization of Services) Bill, 2017.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House did not take up any question on list of the business due to absence of relevant ministers and non-submission of reply to various questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- Two JUI-F lawmakers pointed out the quorum twice but it was found complete upon counting.
- Again, PPPP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1648 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting due to presence of lawmakers less than 25 percent.
- The entire Opposition walked out of the House twice over non-submission of replies to questions of its lawmakers. First walkout continued for six minutes while other was observed for 35 minutes.
- Two female lawmakers – one each of QWP and PML-N – protested in front of Chair’s rostrum for five minutes against continuous absence of PTI female lawmakers from the House.
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