• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, October 27, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) adopted two resolutions and passed a government bill titled The Prisons (Amendment) Bill, 2020, on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 3^rd sitting of the 14^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and ten minutes.
• The sitting started at 1500 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 24 minutes while the remaining sitting was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the proceedings.
• As many as 62 (43%) legislators were present at the start and 50 (34%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of PML-N, MMAP and BAP attended the sitting.
• Three out of four minority members were present during the proceedings.

Output

• Tabled by Advisor to Chief Minister on Prisons, the House passed the Prisons (Amendment) Bill, 2020 with a purpose to introduce comprehensive reforms for the provision of better services in jails and for the prisoners.
• The House adopted two supplementary resolutions to condemn the lockdown in Indian Illegaly Occupied Kashmir and demarcate territorial limits of Makhinal Guzara forests in Haripur district.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Minister for Law responded to a Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding increase in upper age limit for candidates appearing in the exams of Provincial Management Service and the strike of lawyers across the province against the recent changes in the Code of Civil Procedure.
• The House took up four out of six starred questions while the lawmakers also asked three supplementary questions.
• The Chair referred a privilege motion of a PTI lawmaker to the privilege committee. The motion was against an official of the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar.
• Sponsored by a PPPP lawmaker, the Chair admitted an adjournment motion for debate in the next session regarding lack of basic amenities in the newly merged districts of KP.
• A lawmaker of MMAP withdrew her adjournment motion after getting assurance from the Minister for Law. The matter was related to non-issuance of exam schedule for the students of two-year diploma under the auspices of Medical Faculty KP.

Order and Institutionalization

• Five lawmakers spoke on as many points of order for 20 minutes.
• The session was prorogued sine-die.

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