KP Assembly Skips Legislative Business, Five Private Resolutions

ISLAMABAD, July 12, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) did not take up its legislative business and five private members’ resolutions appearing on the agenda, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet on Friday.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during ninth sitting of seventh session:

Members’ Participation

  • The Assembly met for two hours and 19 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1101 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
  • The Speaker chaired the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
  • The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
  • As many as 55 members (44%) were present at the start and 59 (48%) at the end of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of ANP, PPPP and PML attended the sitting.
  • Two out of three minority members were present.

Output                                             

  • The House did not take up the legislative business while five resolutions appearing on the agenda were not considered.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up 14 out of 16 Starred Questions while two questions lapsed due to absence of the concerned members. In addition, the lawmakers asked eight supplementary questions.
  • The House referred two Privilege Motions to the relevant standing committee. These motions were moved by PTI ANP lawmakers.
  • An Adjournment Motion regarding reservations of local people on the construction of Institute of Petroleum Technology in Karak was admitted for debate in any of the next sitting.
  • The Provincial Ministers for Food and Information responded to two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). These notice were about setting up Agriculture Department in University of Swat and allocation in budget to introduce sub-surface drainage system for cultivation in Mardan and Swabi.

Order and Institutionalization

  • As many as three lawmakers spoke on a Point of Order consuming twelve minutes.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on July 15, 2019 (Monday) 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