ISLAMABAD, October 23, 2017: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly adopted three private members’ resolutions amidst absence of the Speaker, Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 10^th sitting of the 26^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The KP Assembly met for an hour and 44 minutes.
• The proceedings were suspended for 25 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 18 lawmakers (15%) were present at the start and 29 (24%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N and PPPP attended the sitting.
• None of the minority lawmakers was present.

Output

• The House adopted three private members’ resolutions recommending the government to regularize the employees of District Development Accounts Committee, run a plantation campaign in public and semi-government educational institutions, and urge the federal government to provide compensation to the families of Balochistan mine incident victims.
• The Provincial Minister for Law introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as eight out of 15 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while seven questions were disposed of due to absence of movers. In addition, the lawmakers asked four supplementary questions.
• The House disposed of two Call Attention Notices (CANs) due to absence of concerned lawmakers.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers belonging to PTI and PML-N lawmakers protested for four minutes during the Question Hour. They chanted slogans and leveled allegations of corruption against each other.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1619 hours. The Chair ordered to ring the bells for two minutes after that the proceedings were suspended for 25 minutes due to prayer break. The proceedings resumed at 1646 hours.

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 proceedings conducted by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted