Low Attendance of MPAs, Points of Order interrupting regular proceedings and late starts marked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s 25th session.

The Assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Bill 2012, paving the way for holding local bodies’ polls in the province. Amid debate on creating new provinces, the Assembly also adopted a Resolution for giving the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) representation in the House. The Resolution asked the President and the Federal Government to “ensure that the people of Federally Administered Tribal Areas should fully enjoy the protection and equality, under and before the law as inalienable right of every citizen under the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”

The session comprising five sittings was held from May 4-14 for nine hours and 41 minutes. An average of one hour and 56 minutes per sitting. Each sitting on average was delayed by 45 minutes.

Apart from the Local Government Bill, the House also passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cessation of Payment of Arrears on Advance Increments on Higher Educational Qualification Bill 2012 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Bill 2012.

Since the KP Assembly Secretariat does not make the attendance record public, FAFEN conducts a headcount of Members at the beginning and end of each sitting and documents the actual time spent on the floor of the House by the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

On average only 38 MPAs (30% of total membership of 124) were present at the outset and 52 (42%) at the end of each sitting.

The Chief Minister did not attend the entire session while the Leader of the Opposition was present during two sittings for 25% (148 minutes) of the session time. The Speaker chaired the proceedings for 25% of the session time while the remaining time was presided over by the Deputy Speaker. The PPPS parliamentary leader attended four sittings, PML three and PPPP and PMLN two sittings each.

A total of 33 Points of Order consumed 21% of the total session time – 121 of the 581 minutes. None of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling. Without the Chair’s formal ruling, these Points of Order do not lead to any output.

Twenty-nine out of 44 Starred questions (requiring oral replies) appearing on the Agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministries. On average five questions were asked per sitting. Additionally, 55 supplementary questions were asked. The House witnessed two walkouts. During the second sitting, the MMAP legislators walked out of the House after one of their colleagues was asked by the Chair to shorten his speech on the FATA Resolution. Similarly, when an MPA was not allowed to speak during the Question Hour, she along with other female MPAs walked out.

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