ISLAMABAD, December 12, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa witnessed introduction of three government bills on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during 1st sitting of fourth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for an hour and 22 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1050 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• As many as 40 members (32%) were present at the start and 38 (31%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders ANP, MMAP, PPPP, PML-N and PML-Q attended the sitting.
• As many as two out of three minority members were present.

Output                                             

• The Minister for Law introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Continuation of Laws in Erstwhile Provincially Administered Tribal Areas Bill, 2018, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Agriculture responded to an Adjournment Motion (AM), moved by ANP lawmaker, regarding the attack of a mysterious disease on tomatoes crop in Buner. The minister assured the House to constitute a committee to investigate the spread of disease.
• The Minister for Law responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CAN), moved by a ANP lawmaker, regarding alleged ‘unjustified’ appointment on the posts of Director Anti-Corruption and Deputy Secretary Administration. Another CAN regarding delay in disbursement of Zakat funds was deferred due to absence of the concerned minister.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as six lawmakers spoke on two Points of Orders consuming 30 minutes of the proceedings.
• In two separate rulings, the Speaker directed the ministers to avoid being absent from the House proceedings without providing reasons of absence and asked the departmental secretaries to give due respect to the lawmakers.

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