ISLAMABAD, December 14, 2016: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly could not take up half of the questions as relevant movers and the minister were not present on Wednesday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The treasury lawmakers protested against the federal government for not allowing the delegation of British High Commission to visit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by wearing black arm bands around their arms.

The Assembly adopted two resolutions in the absence of Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during 18^th sitting of 21^st session:

Members’ Participation

• The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly met for an hour and 26 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1457 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• A total of 29 lawmakers (23%) were present at the start and 36 (29%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting, while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N and QWP were present during the proceedings.
• One minority member attended the sitting.
• Ten members applied for leave.

Output

• Tabled by JUI-F lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn the killing of innocent people in Yemen and Syria. It also demanded of the federal government to use diplomatic forums to bring peace to these countries, especially by motivating the Human Rights Organizations.
• The House also adopted a resolution with majority vote to merge Federally Administered Tribal Areas in KP. The resolution was tabled by PTI lawmaker.
• The House adopted report of the Public Accounts Committee for the year 2012-13 while it also witnessed presentation of a report by Standing Committee on Administration Department.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was to enhance funds for the construction of road from Daggar to Gokand while the notice was about regularization of female teachers appointed through NTS in the province and their appointment in native cities.
• Six out of 12 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were taken up and responded to by relevant authorities while lawmakers also asked five supplementary questions. Five questions remained unaddressed due to movers’ absence and one was deferred due to ministerial absence.

Order and Institutionalization

• Three Points of Order consumed 18 minutes of the proceedings.
• A PTI lawmaker protested for five minutes against non-allocation of development funds and not getting royalty on natural gas. He lodged protest by sitting in front of the Chair.

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’s proceedings conducted by United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted