ISLAMABAD, November 26, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed two government bills and adopted one resolution on Friday, observes Fee and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the 24th sitting of 20th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours.
• The sitting started at 11:20 am against the scheduled time of 10:00 am.
• The speaker presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy speaker was also present.
• The leaders of the House (chief minister) and the opposition were not present.
• As many as 41 MPAs (28 percent) were present at the outset and 51 (35 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of all political parties were absent.
• Three out of four minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House passed two government bills including the KP Control of Narcotics Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the KP Appointment of Law Officers (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• Three government bills were introduced in the House which included the Upper Swat Development Authority Bill, 2021; the KP Deserving Artists Welfare Endowment Fund Bill, 2021 and the KP Absorption of Certain Employees, 2021.
• Tabled by a PML-N lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution demanding to ensure addition of column related to the finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH) in marriage document (Nikah Nama).

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up six out of ten starred questions while lawmakers asked four supplementary questions as well.
• Three lawmakers debated an adjournment motion for 45 minutes which was regarding preparations for the upcoming elections of local government. Minister for labor responded to this motion and spoke for ten minutes.
• Minister for labor responded to a calling attention notice (CAN) regarding non-induction of candidates from Dir Bala in police department despite qualifying the test for the posts of police constables.
• Another CAN on the agenda lapsed due to absence of relevant lawmaker.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, December 20, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available for the legislators, observers and the media.
• Attendance of the lawmakers was not available for the observers and the 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 excepted