KP Assembly: Opposition Leader Starts Debate on Budget

ISLAMABAD, June 16, 2016: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly opened debate on the Provincial Budget 2016-17 with the speech of Leader of the Opposition on Thursday, reports Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

The Leader of the Opposition spoke for 52 minutes on the Provincial Budget followed by seven other lawmakers – PTI (3), PML-N (2), PPPP and ANP (one each) – who debated it for 111 minutes.

Following are some key observations of the assembly business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

  • The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly met for 169 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1435 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  •  Thirty-nine members (31%) were present at the start and 59 (48%) at the end of the sitting.
  • The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
  • The Deputy Speaker was also present.
  • The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 61 minutes while the Opposition Leader and Finance Minister were present in entire sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of JI, ANP, PML-N and QWP attended the sitting.
  • Two minority members were present.
  • Two members applied for the leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The Leader of the Opposition opened the Budget debate and spoke for 52 minutes.
  • Seven other lawmakers – PTI (3), PML-N (2), PPPP and ANP (one each) – spoke on provincial budget for 111 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

  • Two Points of Order consumed two minutes of the sitting.
  • PTI lawmakers walked out of the House one minute before the end of the sitting against unscheduled load-shedding in the province.

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