KP Assembly: Lack of Quorum Leads to Adjournment of Sitting

ISLAMABAD, May 17, 2016: Starting 33 minutes behind the scheduled time, the first  sitting of 18th session of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was adjourned due to lack of quorum, says Free and Fair Election Network on Tuesday.

The sitting started at 1533 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours with 30 lawmakers (24%) present at the start and 24 (19%) at the time of adjournment.

Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

  • The KP Assembly met for 51 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1533 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • Thirty lawmakers (24%) were present at the start and 24 (19%) 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 and PML-N were present.
  • Two minority members attended the sitting.
  • Ten members applied for leave.

Output

  • The House adopted the report of Standing Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education while another report of Standing Committee on Finance was also presented.

Order and Institutionalization

  • A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1626 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting after two minutes due to presence of lawmakers less than 25 percent.
  • Four Points of Order consumed 22 minutes of the sitting.

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.

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