KP Assembly Transacts Entire Business

ISLAMABAD, February 6, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) addressed entire business appearing on the Order of the Day on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the fifth session:

Members’ Participation

  • The Assembly met for three hours and 17 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1149 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
  • The Leader of the House was absent while the opposition leader attended the entire proceedings.
  • As many as 45 MPAs (36%) were present at the outset and 32 (26%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leader of ANP attended the proceedings.
  • As many as two out of three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

  • The Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs laid the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Youth Affairs Management and disposal of Immovable Properties Ordinance, 2018 in the House.
  • The Minister for Law introduced four government bills including the Code of Civil Procedure, KPK (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the KPK Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the KPK Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the KPK Powers of Attorney (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the House.
  • Moved by PPPP and MMA lawmakers, the House adopted three resolutions to establish Distribution Company in Malakand, revisit the recent Hajj policy announced by the government and compensate the family of victims of Sahiwal incident.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The Minister for Law responded to two Call Attention Notices (CANs) regarding establishment of National Park in Kumrat Valley and unavailability of residences for government employees in Peshawar. These CANs were raised by lawmakers belonging to PPPP and MMA.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The House referred three Privilege Motions appearing on agenda to relevant Standing Committee. Two motions were moved by lawmakers belonging to ANP while one was moved by a PTI lawmaker.
  • As many as 12 lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming an hour and four minutes of the proceedings.
  • The lawmakers belonging to opposition parties protested on floor of the House for ten minutes against appointment of the Speaker as a Chairperson of Public Accounts Committee and suspending membership of their fellow lawmaker from a Standing Committee.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on Friday 8, 2019 at 0130 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