ISLAMABAD, December 7, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed three government bills and also discussed the deaths of coronavirus patients due to oxygen shortage in a hospital of Peshawar, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the 15^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hour and 20 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1445 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Fifty (34%) legislators were present at the start and 62 (43%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of ANP, PML-N and MMAP attended the sitting.
• Three out of four minority members were present.

Output

• Introduced by Provincial Minister for Law, the House passed three government bills including the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization Bill, 2020, the KP Police (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the KP Healthcare Service Providers and Facilities (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2020.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not observe question hour and discussed the deaths of six coronavirus patients due to oxygen shortage in Peshawar’s Khyber Teaching Hospital yesterday. Seven lawmakers participated in debate and spoke for 45 minutes.
• Provincial Minister for Environment responded to a Call Attention Notice (CANs) about encouraging olive cultivation in the province.
• Another CAN related to irrigation department was referred to the relevant committee.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion of ANP lawmaker for discussion in any of the next sitting. It was regarding reopening of educational institutions in province through ensuring implementation on SOPs in letter and spirit.
• The Chair referred the privilege motion of a PTI lawmaker against Additional Deputy Commissioner, Peshawar to the relevant committee.
• Another privilege motion of a PTI lawmaker was not considered due to his absence.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 8, 2020 (Tuesday) at 1400 hours.

 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 the direct observation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly proceedings conducted by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted