KP Assembly Passes Two Government Bills; Transacts Most of its Agenda

ISLAMABAD, September 8, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed two government bills and concluded discussion on non-availability of funds for ongoing developmental schemes, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during sixth sitting of the 13th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for three hours and 37 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1503 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and seven minutes while the rest of the sitting was presided over by the Deputy Speaker.
  • The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 50 (34%) legislators were present at the start and 40 (28%) at the end of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of BAP, MMA, PML, ANP and PML-N attended the sitting.
  • Four minority members were present in the sitting.

Output

  • Presented by Law Minister the House passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Antiquities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Forensic Science Agency Bill, 2020.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up seven out of eight starred questions. In addition, lawmakers asked three supplementary questions.
  • The Law Minister responded two Call Attention Notices regarding possession of graveyard land for Government High School and KDFO and Rangers Officers of the forest department registered FIR against people of PK-16.
  • The Minister for Finance concluded discussion on non-availability of funds for ongoing developmental schemes. Ten lawmakers including Minister for finance debated the issue consuming two hours and two minutes of the proceedings.
  •  The chair deferred discussion on a question and Chakdara-Chitral CPEC route.

Order and Institutionalization

  • As many as two lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming four minutes of the proceedings.
  • A PPPP lawmaker walked out at 1645 from the House against absence of concerned department officials for discussion on her question.
  • The opposition lawmakers staged walkout for 30 minutes from the House against the dissatisfactory government’s response towards Mohmand marble mine incident.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on September 11, 2020 (Friday) at 1000 hours.

 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