ISLAMABAD, October 7, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed three bills and adopted one resolution during 8^th sitting of its ongoing 21^st session on Friday, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings:

Members’ Participation

• The KP Assembly met for an hour and 26 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1552 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• Fifty-five lawmakers (44%) were present at the start and 51 (41%) at the adjournment of the sitting. A maximum of 64 members (52%) were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister attended the sitting for an hour and 18 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was absent.
• Parliamentary leaders of JI and PML-N were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.
• Eleven members applied for leave.

Output

• The House passed three bills, including the KP Blood Transfusion Safety Authority Bill, 2016; the BRAINS Institute Bill, 2016 and the Public-Private Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• The House witnessed introduction of KP Lissaail-e-Wal Mahroom Foundation (Amendment) Bill, which was forwarded to the relevant committee for further consideration.
• The House witnessed the presentation of KP Mines and Mineral Development and Regulations Ordinance 2016.
• The House adopted a resolution demanding the federal government to fulfill its commitment regarding construction of western route of China Pakistan Economic Corridor on priority.
• The House adopted a report of Standing Committee on Communication & Works Department.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding provision of allowance for staff of Provincial Assembly and Civil Secretariat as has been committed in the annual budget.

• A CAN regarding provision of development funds for Bannu was withdrawn by the mover while the House did not consider another notice due to the absence of mover.

• Privilege Motions of PPPP lawmaker against the principal of a college in Dir and another of PTI lawmaker against Hostel Warden in Peshawar were considered by the House. Both the motions were referred to the relevant committee for further deliberation.
• Three out of eight Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were answered by the relevant departments. In addition, one Supplementary Question was also raised by a lawmaker.

Order and Institutionalization

• Ten minutes were consumed on a Point of Order.

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