ISLAMABAD, January 15, 2013 Starting an hour and 13 minutes late, the 13^th sitting of the 29^th session of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly witnessed passage of five bills.

Low attendance continued to persist as only 35 members were present at the start and 34 at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 48 members were present during a time of the sitting.

The Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the parliamentary leaders of PMLN and PPPS did not attend the sitting.

A legislator from the opposition benches staged a walkout after the Speaker ignored his call for pointing out quorum. He did not come back to attend the rest of the proceedings.

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly met for two hours and 36 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1613 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1500 hours, witnessing a delay of an hour and 13 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the sitting. The Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the parliamentary leaders of PMLN and PPPS did not attend the sitting.
• Thirty five members were present at the outset, while 34 (27%) were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 48 members (39%) were present during a point of sitting.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.
• Three members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Seven starred questions appearing on the agenda were raised and responded to by the relevant ministries. Additionally, one supplementary question was asked.

Output

• Five bills – the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servant (Amendment) Bill 2012, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Payment of Wages Bill 2012, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hotels and Restaurants (Amendment) Bill 2013, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourists Guides (Amendment) Bill 2013 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hydel Development Organization (Amendment) Bill 2013 – were passed by the house.
• Two Standing Committee reports were presented in the house. One of these was presented by the Standing Committee on Monitoring and Implementation of NFC Award and the other by the Standing Committee on Agriculture. 

Order and institutionalization

• Only one point of order was raised which consumed one minute of the sitting time.

• A legislator from the opposition benches staged a walkout after the Speaker ignored his call for pointing out quorum.

Transparency

• Agenda for the Day were available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

 

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly proceedings conducted by PAIMAN Alumni Trust, a member organization of FAFEN