KP PA: Break Consumes More Than One Third of Sitting Time

ISLAMABAD, November 30 2015: Starting 32 minutes behind the scheduled time, proceeding of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly remained stalled for 35 minutes due to prayer break, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Monday.

The sitting started at 1532 hours against its scheduled time of 1500 hours with 46 legislators (37%) present at the start and 34 (27%) at the time of its adjournment.

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceeding

  • The KP Assembly met for 98 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1532 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • The House had a break for 35 minutes.
  • The sitting was chaired by the Speaker
  • The post of Deputy Speaker continues to be vacant since October 15, 2014.
  • The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 33 minutes.
  • Forty-six lawmakers (37%) were present at the start and 34 (27%) at the end of the sitting.
  • The Parliamentary Leaders of PML-N, JI, ANP and JUI-F were present.
  • Three minority members attended the sitting.
  • Ten members applied for leave.

Output

  • Tabled by the Minister for Law, the House passed the KP Board of Investment and Trade Bill, 2015.
  • The Hose did not consider the KP Censorship of Motion Pictures, Films and CDs Bill 2015 due to absence of relevant Minister.
  • Standing Committees on Finance and Public Health Engineering presented one report each after getting approval from the House to condone the delay in reporting period.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Sponsored by JUI-F lawmaker, the House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding non-distribution of relief items among IDPs in Hangu.
  • The House took another CAN over non-implementation of commitment made in the House by Minister for Education to finalize service structure of physical education teachers.
  • Five out of the nine starred questions appearing on the agenda for the day were taken up. Four questions to Ministry of Food remained unaddressed due to the absence of the movers. In addition, the lawmakers asked 14 supplementary questions.

Transparency

  • ‘List of Business’ was available to all members
  • Attendance of Members was not made public

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the KP Assembly proceedings conducted by Untied Rural Development Organization (URDO) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.