ISLAMABAD, August 30, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) took up 86 percent agenda on Monday amid absence of the leaders of the House and opposition, observes Fee and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the 8th sitting of 20th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours.
• The sitting started at 03:30 pm against the scheduled time of 2:00 pm.
• The speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker was also present.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition were absent.
• As many as 40 MPAs (28 percent) were present at the outset and 60 (41 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• One out of four minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Special Assistant to Chief Minister on information and public relations, the House passed the KP Centre of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism Bill, 2021.
• The House witnessed introduction of the KP Witness Protection Bill, 2021 while another bill – the KP Sentencing Bill, 2021 – was not taken up due to the absence of relevant minister.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up five out of nine starred questions, while the lawmakers asked three supplementary questions.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion for debate which was about law and order in Peshawar. The motion was sponsored by a MMAP lawmaker.
• The House took up two calling attention notices regarding reconstruction of water storage tank of a school at Swati gate, Peshawar and special development package announced for Zakakhel Bazaar of Khyber District.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PPPP lawmaker walked out from the House for 30 minutes when the Chair turned down her request to refer a question to the relevant standing committee.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday, August 31, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available for the legislators, observers and the media.
• Attendance of the lawmakers was not available for the observers and the 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