ISLAMABAD, March 28, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) debated delay in the announcement of new National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during seventh sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and ten minutes.
• The sitting started at 1435 hours against the scheduled time of 1330 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the proceedings for an hour and 19 minutes while a member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the rest of the sitting in the absence of Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of the House was not present.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 45 MPAs (36%) were present at the outset while 32 (26%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP and PML attended the proceedings.
• All three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The Minister for Law, on behalf of Minister for Revenue and Estate, introduced the KP Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2019. As many as two lawmakers spoke on it for ten minutes.
• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House passed the KP Urban Mass Transit (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The bill was introduced in the House earlier on March 18, 2019.
• The House adopted two supplementary resolutions demanding to include Civic Education in the curriculum of Secondary Schools and check discriminatory attitude with Pukhtoons in Punjab.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House debated delay in the announcement of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, non-payment of Net Hydel Profit (NHP) and prevailing law and order situation in the Province. Eight lawmakers – PTI, ANP & MMAP (two each), PML-N & PPPP (one each) – participated in the discussion that continued for 51 minutes.
• The House deferred debate on price hike and unemployment.

• The Ministers for Law and Industries responded to two Call Attention Notices (CANs) regarding illegal logging and selling land of Charsada Paper Mill for a Housing Scheme. These CANs were raised by lawmakers belonging to PPPP and PTI respectively.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as four lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming six minutes of the proceedings
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1619 hours but it was termed complete by the Chair without headcount.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on March 29, 2019 at 1330 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ is available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers is not available to the observers and media.

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