ISLAMABAD, June 21, 2013: Fourteen members took part in budget debate during the third sitting of the second session of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday. Starting 20 minutes late, the sitting lasted four hours and 13 minutes.

Six PMLN MPAs debated budget for 75 minutes, four JUIF members for 52 minutes, and two each of PPPP and PTI debated the budget for 25 and nine minutes respectively.

As many as 48 members were present at the outset while 31 were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 68 members were present at one point of sitting.

The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting. The Chief Minister and the Finance Minister were present and attended the entire proceedings.

Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The KP Assembly met for four hours and 13 minutes. There were two breaks of 27 and 36 minutes respectively.
• The sitting started at 1620 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours, witnessing the delay of 20 minutes.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting. The Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister attended the entire sitting.
• The Finance Minister was present.
• As many as 48 members were present at the outset while 31 were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 68 members were present at one point of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JUIF, JI, and QWPS attended the sitting while those of ANP, PPPP, AJIP and the only MPA of APML were absent.
• All the three minority members on reserved seats attended the sitting.
• Three members applied for leave. 

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 14 MPAs – six of PMLN, four of JUIF, and two each of PTI and PPPP – debated the budget for two hours and 41 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• One point of order consumed three minutes of the sitting time.
• There was no instance of protests, walkout or boycott during the sitting. 

Transparency

• List of Business was available to the legislators, observer and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.
• Copies of the budget speech were available to the legislators.

 

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