ISLAMABAD, March 18, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) adopted a resolution commending the New Zealand Prime Minister for her support to the Muslim community and continued the discussions on hike in energy tariffs, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and 33 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1454 hours against the scheduled time of 1330 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for 57 minutes.
• As many as 39 MPAs (31%) were present at the outset while 36 (29%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of ANP attended the proceedings.
• All three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Jointly sponsored by the lawmakers belonging to treasury and opposition, the House unanimously adopted a resolution commending the Prime Minister of New Zealand for her support to the Muslim community. The resolution also paid tribute to the Pakistani victims of the terror incidents in New Zealand.
• Moved by a PTI lawmaker as supplementary agenda, the House adopted a resolution recommending the government to amend the traffic rules restricting the children below the age of 12 from sitting on the front seat in motor vehicles.
• The Minister for Food introduced the Pakhtunkhwa Urban Mass Transit (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House continued the debate on terror attack at mosques in New Zealand that left more than 40 people dead and several others injured.
• The House also continued the discussion on the hike in tariff for gas and electricity. As many as 14 lawmakers participated in the discussion that continued for an hour and 35 minutes.
• The Minister for Food responded to   two Call Attention Notices (CANs) regarding the Khesur incident in North Waziristan and non-functioning of Zakat Committees in the province.
• The House deferred the scheduled discussions on the steps taken for rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure of the tribal districts and annual provincial development programme.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as eight lawmakers spoken on three Point of Orders consuming 33 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on March 19, 2019 at 1330 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ is available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers is not available to the observers and media.
  

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the KP Assembly proceedings conducted by United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted