KP Assembly: Lack of Quorum Leads to Adjournment of Sitting

ISLAMABAD, March 14, 2016: Starting 70 minutes behind the scheduled time, the second sitting of 16th session of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was adjourned due to lack of quorum, says Free and Fair Election Network on Monday.

The sitting started at 1510 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours with 52 lawmakers (42%) present at the start and 20 (16%) at the time of adjournment.

Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

  • The KP Assembly met for two hours and 28 minutes.
  • The sitting started 1510 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • Fifty-two lawmakers (42%) were present at the start and 20 (16%) at the end of the sitting.
  • Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
  • Parliamentary leaders of ANP, QWP and PML-N were present.
  • One minority member attended the sitting.
  • Twelve members applied for leave.

Output

  • The House did not take up the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission (Amendment) Ordinance 2016.
  • A report about education department was not presented in the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up two calling attention notice (CANs) regarding special package for personnel of Elite Force who lost their lives after land sliding in Naran Valley and non-allocation of land for affectees of earthquake in Chitral.
  • A privilege motion on the agenda was not taken up due to absence of mover.
  • Four out of 19 starred questions appearing on the agenda were answered by the relevant department while the MPAs also raised 16 supplementary questions

Order and Institutionalization

  • Two Points of Order consumed 25 minutes of the sitting time.
  • A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1737 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting due to presence of lawmakers less than 25 percent.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.

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