ISLAMABAD, April 1, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) adopted six supplementary resolutions after suspension of the rules, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.

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

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for three hours and 22 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 15 minutes due to tea break.
• The sitting started at 1428 hours against the scheduled time of 1330 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the House was absent.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 49 MPAs (40%) were present at the outset while 33 (27%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP and PPPP attended the proceedings.
• All of the three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House passed the KP Promotion, Protection and Enforcement of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The bill was introduced in the House on March 20, 2019.
• Moved by the lawmakers belonging to PTI and MMAP, the House adopted six resolutions demanding to increase education quota for minorities from three percent to five percent, deploy three Frontier Corps (FC) Platoons in Battagram, ban porn websites, increase minority job quota from three percent to five percent, establish Public Service Testing Center in Dir and initiate internship program for engineering students.
• A PTI lawmaker withdrew her resolution about registration of non-custom paid vehicles.
• The Chair gave a ruling to direct the government departments for presence of officer of rank of BPS-20 (Additional Secretary) or above in the gallery to respond the queries raised through any parliamentary intervention.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House debated law and order situation in the Province and six lawmakers – PTI & PPPP (two each), ANP & MMAP (one each) – participated in the discussion that continued for an hour and 20 minutes.

• Sponsored by a PTI lawmaker, the Minister for Law responded to an Privilege Motion (PM) regarding discriminatory behavior of Police Department with people of the Battagram in the recruitment process. The motion was referred to the concerned committee.
• The Minister for Law and Advisor on Elementary and Secondary Education responded to four Call Attention Notices (CANs) regarding shortage of water in PK-16, harmful effects of bottled water, encroachment issue in Peshawar (PK-70) and problems of private school teachers. These CANs were raised by lawmakers belonging to ANP, PTI and MMAP.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as eight lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming ten minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on April 2, 2019 (Tuesday)  at 1330 hours.

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