KP Assembly Passes Bills on Health and Education

ISLAMABAD, September 26, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed four government bills on subjects of health and education on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of the 21st session:

Members’ Participation

  • The KP Assembly met for an hour and 17 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1533 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • Thirty-five lawmakers (29%) were present at start and 43 (35%) at adjournment of the sitting.  A maximum of 48 members (39%) were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
  • The Chief Minister was not present.
  • The Leader of Opposition attended the sitting for an hour.
  • Parliamentary leader of PPPP was present.
  • Two minority members attended the sitting.
  • Fifteen members applied for leave.

Output

  • Tabled by the Minister for Health, the House passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tibb and Homeopathic Employees (Appointment) Bill, 2016, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tuberculosis Notification Bill, 2016 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Faculty of Paramedical and Allied Health Sciences Bill, 2016.
  • Tabled by the Minister for Law, the House also passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Higher Education Academy of Research and Training Bill, 2016.
  • The Minister for Health introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prohibition of Tobacco and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Bill, 2016 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Blood Transfusion Safety Authority Bill, 2016 while the Brain Institute Bill, 2016 was introduced by the Minister for Law.
  • A PTI lawmaker presented the report of the Standing Committee on Public Health Engineering while report of the Standing Committee on Communication & Works was presented by JUI-F lawmaker.
  • Moved by the Minister for Finance, the House adopted a motion seeking referral of the Audit Reports of on Accounts of District Governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa back to Provincial Government.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up one out of two Call Attention Notices regarding dilapidated conditions of schools.
  • Eight out of 14 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were answered by the relevant departments.
  • Sponsored by PPPP lawmaker, the House discussed an Adjournment Motion regarding attempts to revert the powers granted to the provinces in 18th Constitutional Amendment. Four members spoke on the subject for ten minutes.

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.