The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly passed three bills and adopted all resolutions (eight) during the 18th session, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its session report based on direct observation of the proceedings of the Provincial Assembly.
Among the eight government bills appearing on the List of Business, the House passed three, including the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Foundation Bill, 2016, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Appointment of GAVI Employees Bill, 2016.
Of the remaining bills, two were introduced, one was not taken up, one was deferred while one was referred to the Select Committee.
The May 17-27, 2016 session comprised five sittings. On average, each sitting started with a delay of 40 minutes. The total duration of the session was six hours and 39 minutes while 4% of the time was consumed in breaks.
Attendance of Members remained low during the reporting period as on average 41 lawmakers were present at the outset and 36 at the time of adjournment.
The Speaker remained absent during the entire session, whereas all five sittings were chaired by the Deputy Speaker, consuming 96% of the proceedings time.
The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended two sittings while remaining present for 20% of the proceedings time. On the other hand the Leader of the Opposition attended only one sitting.
Among the parliamentary leaders, the PML-N leader attended four sittings followed by three each by JI and ANP, two by QWP-S and only one by the PPPP leader.
The House adopted eight resolutions – five sponsored by private members, two by government lawmakers and one was jointly sponsored. The resolutions were related to load-shedding during Ramadan, condemnation of US drone attack, observance of Holy Ramadan on the same day across the country, withdrawal of tax imposition on contractors, establishing women caucus in Provincial Assembly, restoration of BOL media group, condemnation of execution of Bangladesh’s JI top leader Matti-Ur-Rehman and preparation of education report at the constituency level instead of district level.
The House also witnessed presentation of reports by the chairpersons of the Standing Committees, including Finance Department, Elementary & Secondary Education, District Governments and Health Department. The House granted extension to the report of Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while it did not take up another report of the Communication & Works Department.
Five Call Attention Notices (CANs) were taken up by the House. These were related to the departments of Agriculture, Sports and Culture, Home, Elementary & Secondary and Finance.
Three Adjournment Motions were raised in the House. One each by JI and JUI-F while another was jointly raised by AJIP, JUI-F and PML-N.
According to FAFEN’s observation, there were three instances of pointation of quorum. A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum in the first sitting which led to the adjournment of the sitting. While, during the third sitting, a PML-N lawmaker pointed out quorum, which was ignored by the Chair. However, on the pointation of quorum again, the Chair had to adjourn the sitting.
A walkout was staged by the opposition parties for 15 minutes against the non-construction of a demolished bridge in Dir despite the allocation of funds while a protest was carried out by the opposition for 10 minutes over the delay in start of proceedings.
A Privilege Motion against the behavior of Khyber Medial College principal with a PTI lawmaker was referred to the relevant Standing Committee for further deliberations.
Lawmakers raised seven Points of Order (POs) consuming 44 minutes of the session’s time. Three PPPP lawmakers raised POs followed by JUI-F (two), PML-N (one) and ANP (one).
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