KP Assembly Prorogued Amidst Lawmakers’ Protest

ISLAMABAD, March 2, 2018: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was prorogued sine die on Friday without taking its scheduled business amidst lawmakers’ protest against inclusion of the oath-taking of a jailed member-elect on the Orders of the Day, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during 19th and last sitting of the 27th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The KP Assembly met for 12 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1122 hours against the scheduled time 1100 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
  • The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
  • As many as 50 MPAs (40%) were present at outset and 20 (16%) at adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, QWP-S, PPPP, ANP and JI attended the sitting.
  • As many as two minority lawmakers were present during the sitting.

Output

  • The House did not take up the legislative business.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House did not take up the Starred Questions.

Order and Institutionalization

  • A lawmaker raised a Point of Order consuming three minutes of the proceedings.
  • The treasury and opposition lawmakers jointly staged a protest against including the oath-taking of a minority member-elect on the Orders of the Day.
  • The Chair announced the prorogation of the session immediately after the identification of quorum by a PPPP lawmaker at 1133 hours.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • Information on Members’ attendance is not available to observers and media.

The daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly proceedings conducted by United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted.