ISLAMABAD, February 25, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) approved amendments to the laws concerning civil courts and power of attorney on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and 34 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1428 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 entire sitting.
• As many as 48 MPAs (39%) were present at the outset while 25 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP and PPPP attended the proceedings.
• All minority lawmakers (three) attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House passed the KP Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the KP Powers of Attorney (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The bills were introduced in the House on February 6, 2019.
• The House unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn human rights violation in Occupied Kashmir and rejected Indian allegations linking the Pulwama attack with Pakistan.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The government answered six out of 15 Starred Questions while nine questions were disposed of. The lawmakers asked five supplementary questions as well.
• The House admitted a MMAP lawmaker’s Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding additional marks for holders of Shahdat-ul-Almia degree during teachers’ recruitment process.
• The Minister for Law responded to three Call Attention Notices (CANs) regarding adaptation/formation of policy to support shopkeeper and landlords in natural disastrous situations, recruitment of sweeper in primary schools and emission of poisonous gases from industries in Kohat. These CANs were raised by lawmakers belonging to PTI, ANP and MMAP.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as 10 lawmakers raised eight Points of Order consuming 25 minutes of the proceedings.
• A minority lawmaker from MMAP moved a Question of Privilege stating that the Provincial Department of Minorities’ Affairs breached his privilege by not inviting him to the departmental meetings. However, he withdrew the motion on an assurance by the Minister for Law to look in to the matter.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on February 26, 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.

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