Point of Order Consumes One-Third of KP Assembly’s Sitting

ISLAMABAD, May 20, 2016: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly continued to witness low attendance of lawmakers during its sitting on Friday and a Point of Order consumed around one-third of sitting’s time, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The sitting started at 1528 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours with 36 lawmakers (29%) present at the start and 40 (32%) at the time of adjournment.

Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

  • The KP Assembly met for 62 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1528 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • Thirty-six lawmakers (29%) were present at the start and 40 (32%) at the end of the sitting.
  • Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
  • Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, ANP and JI were present.
  • One minority member attended the sitting.
  • Eleven members applied for leave.

Output

  • The House considered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and referred it to Select Committee for further deliberations.
  • The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 was also laid in the House.
  • A report of Public Accounts Committee was presented in the House which was later adopted by the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up a Calling Attention Notice about irregularities during induction process in Irrigation Department of Malakand Division.

Order and Institutionalization

  • One Point of Order consumed 20 (33%) minutes of the sitting time.

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