ISLAMABAD, December 19, 2016: Starting 45 minutes behind the schedule, the 20^th sitting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly was adjourned due to lack of quorum, says Free and Fair Election Network on Monday.

The sitting began with just 18 lawmakers (15%) present at the start and 28 (23%) at the time of adjournment.

Following are some key observations of 20^th sitting of Assembly’s 21^st session:

Members’ Participation

• The KP Assembly met for 36 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1445 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• Eighteen lawmakers (15%) were present at the start and 28 (23%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were not present.
• Parliamentary leaders of QWP and PML-N were present.
• One minority member attended the sitting.

Output

• Minister for Culture introduced the KP Censorship of Motion Pictures (Films, CDs, Videos, Stage Dramas and Shows) Bill, 2016 which was referred to Select Committee for further deliberations.
• Other agenda of the sitting remained unaddressed due to early adjournment of sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1451 hours, forcing the Chair to order for the bells to be rung for two minutes. Later on, upon counting, less than 25 percent of the lawmakers were found to be present in the House, which led to the suspension of the proceedings for 15 minutes.
• The same lawmaker pointed out quorum again at 1515 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting till Tuesday.

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.

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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