ISLAMABAD, August 06, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) addressed entire agenda on Friday and adopted a resolution to condemn attack on a Hindu temple in Rahim Yar Khan, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 4th sitting of the 20th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and 10 minutes.
• The sitting started at 10:50 am against the scheduled time of 10:00 am.
• The deputy speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of speaker.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Twenty-five legislators (17 percent) were present at the outset and 50 (34 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of ANP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Three out of four minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output 

• Moved by Provincial Minister for labor and culture, the House passed the KP Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• Provincial Minister for health and finance introduced three bills including the KP Medical Transplantation Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the KP Employees Social Security Bill, 2021 and the KP Sentencing Bill, 2021.
• Tabled by the Provincial Minister for labor and culture, the House passed a resolution recommending the Parliament under Article 144 of the Constitution to establish National Commission for Minorities.
• The House unanimously adopted another resolution to condemn attack on a Hindu temple in Rahim Yar Khan.

Representation and Responsiveness  

• The House took up three out of six starred questions, while lawmakers asked two supplementary questions.
• Minister for finance and health responded to two calling attention notices (CANs) demanding to upgrade the post of Assistant Programmers working in elementary and secondary education department and appoint lady doctor in Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Allai.
• A privilege motion of an MMAP lawmaker against Station House Officer of a police station in Karak was referred to the relevant committee.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion for debate which urged the provincial government for effective steps to check drug addiction among youth in the province. A lawmaker belonging to MMAP moved this motion.

Order and Institutionalization

• A lawmaker belonging to MMAP pointed out the quorum following which the proceedings remained suspended for 20 minutes.
• Two lawmakers spoke on points of order for four minutes.
• The Chair ordered the sergeant-at-arms to eject an MMAP lawmaker for his insistence to give floor to him. He was expelled from the House for ten minutes while the opposition also left the House along with him.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, August 23, 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 are excepted