ISLAMABAD, August 15, 2016: The Opposition lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly staged walkout over non-allocation of development funds for MPAs despite assurance by the Chief Minister, says Free and Fair Election Network on Monday.

A JUI-F lawmaker pointed out the quorum after the walkout by the Opposition following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for two minutes. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting and the Chair announced to prorogue the session sine die.

Members’ Participation in 6^th Sitting of the 20^th Session

• The KP Assembly met for 52 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1538 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• Thirty-four lawmakers (27%) were present at the start while 29 (23%) at the adjournment of the sitting. A maximum of 39 members (31%) were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were not present.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N and ANP attended the proceedings.
• Two minority members were present.
• Twelve members applied for leave.

Output

• The House adopted a resolution to give autonomy to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over tobacco related issues for being largest tobacco production province.
• The House did not consider two bills, an Ordinance and a report of the Standing Committee appearing on the list of the business.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up three Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was regarding defective machinery at Department of Neurology Hayat Abad Medical Complex; the second notice was about construction of new Balakot City while third CAN was about constitution of committee to identify loopholes in various laws. All CANs were responded to by the Provincial Minister for Law.
• Three out of 14 starred questions appearing on the agenda were answered by the relevant departments while remaining questions were not considered due to the absence of movers and relevant ministers. In addition, one supplementary question was asked.

Order and Institutionalization

• Five Points of Order consumed nine minutes of the proceedings.
• The opposition lawmakers staged a walkout at 1622 hours against attitude of Chief Minister who reportedly did not give time to them to listen their grievances about funds despite commitment made by him. They did not return to the House till the end of the sitting at 1630 hours.
• A JUI-F lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1628 hours following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for two minutes. However, it was found incomplete upon counting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to legislators, observers and other stakeholders.
• Attendance of lawmakers was not available to media and observers.

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