ISLAMABAD, April 1, 2016: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly continued to witness low attendance during the last sitting of 16th session on Friday and the Chair announced to prorogue the session after lack of quorum, says Free and Fair Election Network.
Thirty (24%) legislators were present at the start and 25 (20%) at the adjournment of sitting while none of the agenda item except question hour was taken up by the House.
Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:
Members’ Participation in House Proceeding
- The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly met for 59 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
- 30 lawmakers (24%) were present at the outset while 25 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of JI and ANP were present.
- Two minority members were present.
- Twelve members applied for leave.
Output
- The House did not consider the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Retirement Benefits and Death Compensation (Amendment) Bill 2016 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendment) Bill 2016.
- The report of Standing Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education was not moved.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up six out of 16 starred questions appearing on the agenda. In addition, lawmakers asked four supplementary questions as well.
- Two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) on the agenda were not taken up by the House.
Order and Institutionalization
- Two Points of Order consumed seven minutes of the proceeding time.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1622 hours following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for two minutes. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting and the Chair announced to prorogue the session sine die.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- 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 Untied Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.