ISLAMABAD, January 15, 2014: A thinly attended sitting of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed the KP Right to Public Services Ordinance, 2014 on Wednesday, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet based on direct observation of the proceedings.

The House also took up two calling attention notices regarding relief efforts in flood-hit areas of Upper Swat and security situation in the province. The special assistant to Chief Minister on higher education introduced four bills related to agriculture, as well.

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings:

• The KP Assembly met for 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours, witnessing a delay of 25 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the sitting.
• The Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition were absent.
• The parliamentary leaders of QWP and PML-N   were present.
• Thirty-four members were present at the outset while 43 were there at the adjournment of the sitting.
• One minority member also attended the sitting.
• None of the members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness:

• Nineteen out of 21 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were taken up while only eight were responded to by the relevant ministries. Additionally, members asked two supplementary questions.
• Two calling attention notices were taken up during the sitting. They were related to the relief efforts in flood-hit areas of Upper Swat and security situation in the province.

Output:

• The KP Right to Public Services Ordinance, 2014 was passed during the sitting.

• The special assistant to Chief Minister on higher education introduced four bills namely The KP Agriculture Pesticide Bill, 2014, The KP Seeds Bill 2014, The KP Plant Breeders Rights Bill 2014, and The KP Farm Service Centers Bill, 2014.

Order and Institutionalization:

• A lawmaker raised a point of order, consuming three minutes of the proceedings.
• There was no instance of protest, boycott or walkout.

Transparency:

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to observers and the public.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of KP Assembly proceedings conducted by PAIMAN, a member organization of FAFEN