ISLAMABAD, September 19, 2017: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly held the first reading of the two government bills on Tuesday including the KP Control of Narcotic Substances Bill, 2017, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of 26^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The KP Assembly met for 43 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1517 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 35 lawmakers (28%) were present at the start and 24 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI, QWP-S, PML-N and ANP attended the sitting.
• Two minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The Provincial Law Minister introduced the the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Control of Narcotic Substances Bill, 2017 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• There were no Questions, Calling Attention Notices (CANs) and Adjournment Motions on the List of Business.

Order and Institutionalization

• Seven lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 15 minutes of the proceedings.
• Entire opposition stage a walkout at 1547 hours over the issue of the privatization of government colleges and upgradation of pay scale of lecturers. They did not return to the House till the adjournment of the proceedings.
• A female lawmaker of PPPP pointed out the quorum at 1550 hours that led to the headcount. However, the quorum was not completed despite ringing the bells twice and the sitting was adjourned.

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.

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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