KP Assembly Passes Three Bills

ISLAMABAD, October 18, 2017: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly on Wednesday passed three bills amid low attendance of lawmakers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the proceedings during eighth sitting of 26th session:

 Members’ Participation

  • The KP Assembly met for two hours and three minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1530 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • The House had a prayer and tea break for 20 minutes.
  • The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
  • The Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the sitting for an hour and 21 minutes.
  • The Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 13 minutes.
  • As many as 29 lawmakers (23%) were present at the start and 35 (28%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • Only JI Parliamentary Leader attended the sitting.
  • One minority lawmaker was present.

Output

  • The House passed the Peshawar Development Authority Bill, 2017; the KP Public Private Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the KP Public Health (Surveillance and Response) Bill, 2017.
  • Another bill – the KP Control of Narcotic Substances Bill, 2017 – was deferred till next session for further consideration on proposed amendments in it.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • As many as seven out of 15 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while six were lapsed due to absence of movers and two were deferred on the request of mover. In addition, the lawmakers also asked three supplementary questions.

 Order and Institutionalization

  • As many as two lawmakers spoke on as many Points of Order consuming four minutes of the proceedings.

 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