KP Assembly Approves Amendments in Ehtesab Commission Act

ISLAMABAD, April 25, 2017: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly passed the KP Ehtesab Commission (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 amidst protest and adopted a resolution demanding resignation of the Prime Minister in the wake of apex court’s decision in Panama Papers case, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

The sitting was rescheduled for today instead of May 2, 2017, as had been announced during the previous (second) sitting on April 14, 2017. The Chair administered the oath to newly-elected PTI lawmaker.

Following are key observations of the proceedings of the third sitting of 24th session:

 Members’ Participation

  • The KP Assembly met for 40 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1550 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • Seventy lawmakers (56%) were present at the start and 85 (69%) at the end of sitting.
  • The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Chief Minister attended the entire sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was not present.
  • Parliamentary leaders of PML-N, JI, QWP and ANP were present.
  • One minority member attended the sitting.

Output

  • Tabled by PTI lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution demanding resignation of the Prime Minister in the wake of Supreme Court’s verdict in the Panama Papers’ case and to ensure transparent inquiry by the Joint Investigation Team.
  • The House passed the KP Ehtesab Commission (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017.

 Representation and Responsiveness

  • Minister for Law presented a motion to suspend the Question Hour, which was passed by the House.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The opposition lawmakers gathered around the Speaker’s dais and protested against the passage of bill and resolution against Prime Minister for 10 minutes.

 Transparency

  • Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and other stakeholders.
  • The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

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