ISLAMABAD, May 2, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (PAKP) sixth session was prorogued on Thursday after passing a government bill and two private member’s resolutions, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 20^th sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and six minutes.
• The sitting started at 1502 hours against the scheduled time of 1330 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting an hour and five minutes.
• As many as 51 MPAs (41%) were present at the outset and 24 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, ANP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Only one out of three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, the House passed the KP Youth Welfare Endowment Fund Bill, 2019. The bill was introduced earlier on April 8, 2019.
• The House deferred the consideration and passage of the KP Education Monitoring Authority Bill, 2019.
• Moved by a lawmaker belonging to PTI, the House adopted two resolutions recommending the government to ban the advertisement of quacks and overburdened school bags of students.

Representation and Responsiveness.

• The Provincial Minister for Food responded to two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding the abolishment of FATA Development Authority (FDA) and unlawful retention of Jalal Uddin, son of a former lawmaker, in Bajur. These CANs were raised by PPPP and ANP lawmakers.
• The House deferred a scheduled discussion on the return of overseas Pakistanis, belonging to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from Middle Eastern countries and its impact on the society till the next session on the request of ANP lawmaker.
• The House referred a Privilege Motion (PM) of a MMAP from Chitral to the concerned standing committee.

 Order and Institutionalization

• As many as 18 lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming an hour six minutes of the proceedings.
• The Speaker directed the government to inquire the removal of content regarding Khatm-e-Nabuwat from the syllabus of Class-IV.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

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 proceedings conducted by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted