ISLAMABAD, August 3, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) addressed two thirds agenda on Tuesday and deferred three government bills, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 3rd sitting of the 20th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for an hour and 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 02:40 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The deputy speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of speaker.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Fifty legislators (34 percent) were present at the outset and 40 (28 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of ANP and PML-N attended the proceedings.
• Three out of four minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output 

• Moved by Provincial Minister for local government, the House passed the KP Registration of Godowns Bill, 2021.
• The Chair deferred three bills including the KP Medical Transplantation Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the KP Employees Social Security Bill, 2021 and the KP Sentencing Bill, 2021 due to non-provision of Urdu translated copies of the bills to the members.
• A member of the Standing Committee on Auqaf presented report of the Committee which was adopted by the House.
• Minister for local government presented the Election Commission of Pakistan Annual Report 2020.

 Representation and Responsiveness  

• The House took up five out of ten starred questions, while lawmakers asked three supplementary questions.
• Minister for Communication and Works responded to a calling attention notice (CAN) regarding the dilapidated condition of Khyber Gate (Bab-e-Khyber). Another CAN on the agenda was lapsed due to absence of relevant lawmaker.

Order and Institutionalization

• The opposition walked out from the House at 04:00 pm when the chair disallowed to give floor to a lawmaker belonging to MMAP.
• Two MMAP lawmakers pointed out the quorum at 04:00 pm and 04:10 pm but it was found complete upon counting on both occasions.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, August 6, 2021 at 10:00 am.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available for the legislators, observers and the media.
• Attendance of the lawmakers was not available for the observers and the media.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the KP Assembly proceedings conducted by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted