ISLAMABAD, October 26, 2016: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly passed a bill amid low attendance of lawmakers during 13^th sitting of the ongoing 21^st session on Wednesday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The sitting started 29 minutes behind the schedule with 15 members (12%) present at the start and 12 (10%) at the time of adjournment.

Following are key observations of the proceedings:

Members’ Participation

• The KP Assembly met for an hour and 44 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1529 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The entire sitting was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition were not present.
• 15 lawmakers (12%) were present at the start and 12 (10%) at the end of sitting. A maximum of 37 members (30%) were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of QWP, JI, PML-N and ANP were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.

Output

• Introduced by Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education, the House passed the KP Lissaail-e-Wal Mahroom Foundation (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• Minister for Finance introduced the KP Public Procurement Regularity Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Sponsored by a PPP lawmaker, the House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) on provision of logistic support and ambulances to District Headquarters Hospital, Timergara and Warri Hospital on Chitral-Peshawar Road.
• Another CAN on the misuse of authority in appointments and purchase tenders at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan was not taken up by the House due to absence of the mover.
• Seven out of 11 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were taken up, while lawmakers also asked seven supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• Three Points of Order consumed 13 minutes of the proceedings.
• The entire opposition staged a walkout at 1648 hours against the Chair for not allowing a PML-N lawmaker to speak on a Point of Order. They did not return to the House till the adjournment of sitting.
• A PPPP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1700 hours but the Chair ignored it. However, it was pointed out again by a PML-N lawmaker at 1711 hours following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for two minutes. On counting, the presence of lawmakers was found to be less than 25 per cent, therefore, the Chair had to adjourn the sitting for November 21, 2016.

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