Lack of Quorum Leads to Adjournment of KP Assembly Sitting

ISLAMABAD, July 15, 2019: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly adopted four resolutions on Monday but was later adjourned due to lack of quorum pointed out by a treasury lawmaker, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

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

Members’ Participation

  • The Assembly met for two hours and 37 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1120 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
  • A Member of the Panel of the Chairpersons presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
  • The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
  • Fifty-two legislators (42%) were present at the start and 30 (24%) at the end of the sitting.
  • The Parliamentary Leader of ANP attended the sitting.
  • All three minority members were present.

Output                                             

  • The Minister for Law introduced the National Disaster Management (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
  • The House adopted four resolutions which demanded to construct Electricity Grid Station in Tehsil Barawal of Upper Dir District, provide mobile and internet services in tribal districts, provide services to special persons at public places and make Mental Health Care Authority functional. These resolutions were MMAP, ANP, PPPP and PTI lawmakers respectively.
  • One of the resolutions appearing on the agenda was dropped due to mover’s absence while other was withdrawn by its respective mover.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up six out of 16 Starred Questions while lawmakers asked six supplementary questions as well.
  • The Provincial Minister for Law responded to two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). These notice demanded to consider 16-year degree issued by Wafaq-ul- Madaris equal to Master’s Degree and settle issues of local people with Batani tribe in Dera Ismail Khan (PK-99) peacefully.

Order and Institutionalization

  • As many as eight lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 15 minutes.
  • The entire opposition staged token protest during the question hour against incomplete answers of their questions by the concerned ministers.
  • A PTI lawmaker pointed out lack of quorum at 1356 hours which led to the adjournment of the proceedings.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on July 18, 2019 (Thursday) 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