ISLAMABAD, December 1, 2015: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly passed the KP Local Government (6^th Amendment Bill) 2015 amid low attendance of lawmakers during the 74^th sitting of its ongoing 15th session on Tuesday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The sitting started 49 minutes behind the schedule with 33 members (27%) present at the start and 60 (48%) at the time of adjournment.

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceeding

• The KP Assembly met for 101 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1449 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The House had a break for 30 minutes.
• The sitting was chaired by the Speaker.
• The post of Deputy Speaker continues to be vacant since October 15, 2014.
• The Leader of the House was present for 30 minutes and the Leader of the Opposition attended entire sitting.
• Thirty-three lawmakers (27%) were present at the start and 60 (48%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of PPP, PML-N, JI, AJIP and JUI-F were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.
• Ten members applied for leave.

Output

• Tabled by the Minister for Local Government, the House passed the KP Local Government (6^th Amendment) Bill 2015.
• Minister for Law introduced the KP Partnership (Amendment) Bill 2015.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Sponsored by QWP female lawmaker, the House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) to regularize the services of teaching assistants.
• The House took another CAN moved by PTI lawmaker to fix sugarcane price in the province.
• A JUI-F lawmaker’s privilege motion against two police officials was taken up and referred to the relevant committee.
• One out of the seven starred questions appearing on the agenda for the day was taken up. Five questions remained unaddressed due to the absence of the movers while one was deferred on the request of the mover. In addition, the lawmakers asked six supplementary questions.
• Minister for Higher Education and Information and a PML-N lawmaker discussed damages after a massive landslide in Abbottabad’s Havelian tehsil. They spoke on it for eight minutes.

Transparency

• ‘List of Business’ was available to all members
• Attendance of Members was not made public

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