ISLAMABAD, December 24, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Journalist Welfare Endowment Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and adopted 19 amendments in the Assembly’s Rules, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of the tenth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and 11 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1514 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was absent.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 65(45%) legislators were present at the start and 35(24%) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP, BAP, PML-N and PPPP attended the sitting.
• Three out of four minority members were present.

Output                                     

• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House unanimously passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Journalist Welfare Endowment Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
• The House debated the Muslim Family Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 for ten minutes, while deferring its further consideration for a later sitting. As many as three lawmakers participated in the debate.
• The Minister for Law presented two statutory reports to the House including the Periodical Report on the Implementation of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award for July-December 2017 and the Annual Report on the Observance and Implementation of the Principles of Policy for 2017.
• On the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Procedural Rules, Privileges and Assurances, the House adopted 19 amendments to the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988. These amendments sought to revise the composition of various committees of the House and to constitute a Business Advisory Committee.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Law responded to two Call Attention Notice (CANs) of ANP lawmakers regarding the confiscation of land in Lower Dir and the environmental hazards of industrial units in Peshawar.
• A Privilege Motion (PM) listed for the sitting remained unaddressed due to absence of its mover.
• The Chair admitted an Adjournment Motion (AM) of MMAP lawmaker for discussion on traffic congestion at University Road, Peshawar. The discussion will be scheduled for a later date. Another AM, moved by ANP lawmaker, regarding imposition of tax on electricity connection for business community in Malakand Division was referred to the concerned standing committee.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as 12 lawmakers spoke on five Points of Order consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.
• The opposition parties protested for five minutes against the recent arrest of a PML-N politician by NAB authorities.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 27, 2019 (Friday) at 1000 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.

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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