KP Assembly Concludes Budget Debate

House Approves Three Demands for Grants; Treasury Lawmakers’ Clash Leads to Adjournment of Sitting

ISLAMABAD, June 21, 2016: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly concluded debate on the Provincial Budget 2016-17 amid clash between treasury members over a cut motion during 5th sitting of the 19st session on Tuesday, says Free and Fair Election Network in its daily factsheet.

The Speaker adjourned the sitting after Provincial Minister for Health and a PTI lawmaker exchanged heated argument over a cut motion. Due to their in-fight, the House could not take up the entire agenda.

Following are some key observations:

Members’ Participation in the House proceedings

  • The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly met for two hours and 30 minutes.
  • The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • 58 lawmakers (47%) were present at the start and 60 (48%) at the end of the sitting.
  • The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
  • The Deputy Speaker was also present.
  • The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader attended the entire sitting.
  • The Finance Minister remained present during the proceedings.
  • The parliamentary leaders of QWP, JI and ANP attended the sitting.
  • Two minority members were present.

Output

  • The House approved three out of 59 Demands for Grants of various government departments while one Demand was deferred.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The Finance Minister concluded the debate on Provincial Budget 2016-17 during his 26-minute speech. Earlier, a PTI lawmaker expressed his views on the budget for 10 minutes.

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