ISLAMABAD, April 15, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed the Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and was later adjourned due to lack of quorum on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

 Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 15^th sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and 22 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1451 hours against the scheduled time of 1330 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition Leader were absent.
• As many as 40 MPAs (32%) were present at the outset while 23 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP and PPPP attended the proceedings.
• Two out of three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Provincial Minister for Law, on behalf of Chief Minister, moved the KP Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which was passed by the House. The bill was earlier introduced in the House on April 9, 2019.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House resumed debate on price hike and unemployment and seven lawmakers – MMAP & ANP (two each) and PML-N, PPP & PTI (one each) –spoke on these issues for an hour and ten minutes.
• The Ministers for Local Government and Law responded to two CANs regarding launch of different schemes by non-elected members in PK-03 and non-functioning of Child Protection Commission in KP. These CANs were raised by lawmakers belonging to PML-N and ANP respectively.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as nine lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 23 minutes of the proceedings.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1500 hours but it was found complete upon counting.
• Due to lack of interest by treasury lawmakers in debate on price hike and unemployment, another lawmaker of PTI pointed out the quorum at 1710 hours that led to the ringing of bells for two minutes. The quorum did not complete after the bells and the House was adjourned to meet again on April 16, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1330 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ is available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers is 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