ISLAMABAD, October 19, 2018: The debate on the provincial budget for the year 2018-19 continued in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the third session:

Members’ Participation

• The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly met for three hours and 11 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1010 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• As many as 48 members (39%) were present at start and 45 (36%) at end of the sitting.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPP, MMA and ANP attended the sitting.
• All of the three minority members attended the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as ten lawmakers participated in the discussion on the budget 2018-19 that continued for two hours and 55 minutes.
• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House adopted a motion for the suspension of the requirement of rule 20 of the KP Assembly Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988 in order to hold the sitting on Saturday. Under Rule 20, the Assembly shall meet on week days except Saturday and Friday.

Order and Institutionalization

• A female lawmaker belonging to PPP staged a walkout for 10 minutes when she was not allowed by the Chair to continue her speech.

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