ISLAMABAD, October 25, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa discussed the supplementary budget and passed a resolution against laying off of media workers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Thursday.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during eighth sitting of third session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and 35 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1055 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• As much as 45 members (36%) were present at the start and 32 (26%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.

• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMA, ANP and PPP attended the sitting.
• As many as two out of three minority members were present.

Output

• The House unanimously approved a resolution recommending the government to take measures regarding laying off of media workers by their employers. The resolution suggested to make the payment of advertisement fees conditional with restoration of media workers. As many as four lawmakers debated the resolution for 15 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House discussed the supplementary budget for the financial year 2017-18. As many as six lawmakers participated in the discussion consuming 59 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• The Chair suspended the proceedings for ten minutes due to absence of the ministers.

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