ISLAMABAD, June 3, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) witnessed introduction of one government as well as six private members’ bills and concluded debate on Chashma right bank lift canal, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are the key observations of the House proceedings during the seventh sitting of the 18th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 55 minutes.
• The sitting started at 04:00 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the sitting for two hour and twenty five minutes while thedeputy speaker chaired the remaining sitting.
• The leader of the House (chief minister) was not present.
• The opposition leader attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 41 (28 percent) legislators were present at the start and 22 (15 percent) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP, PPPP and BAP attended the sitting.
• Three out of four minority members were present.

Output 

• The House witnessed introduction of six private members’ bills including the KP Employees of Health Department (Regularization of Services) Bill, 202; the KP Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the KP Preemption (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the KP Protection of Agricultural Lands Bill, 2021; the KP Livestock Production Bill, 2021 and the Employees of Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (Regularization of Services) Bill, 2021.
• A government bill – the KP Home Based Workers (Welfare and Protection) Bill, 2021 – was also introduced.
• The House deferred two private members’ bills including the KP Regulation of Lady Health Workers Program and Employees (Regularization and Standardization) (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Acid and Burn Crime Bill,
• Another bill – the KP Probation and Parole Bill, 2021- was not considered by the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up three out of seven starred questions.
• The ministers of local government and auqaf, usher and religious affairs responded to two calling attention notices regarding sale of medicine in market stolen from Civil Hospital Jamrud and non-regularizing the services of prayer leaders appointed in masajid of KP in 2012-13.
• An adjournment motion of a PML-N lawmaker was admitted for debate. It was regarding closure of educational institutions and new schedule of matric and intermediate examinations.
• The minister of agriculture concluded the debate on Chashma right bank lift canal and spoke for 20 minutes.
• An ANP lawmaker spoke on upcoming budget for seven minutes.

 Order and Institutionalization

• A PPPP lawmaker protested in front of Chair’s dais for five minutes on disallowing her to move bill.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, June 4, 2021 at 10:00 am.

Transparency

• ‘List of Business’ 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 the observation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly proceedings conducted by United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions excepted