ISLAMABAD, May 23, 2016: Starting 26 minutes behind the scheduled time, the third sitting of 18th session of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was adjourned due to lack of quorum on Monday, says Free and Fair Election Network.

Forty (32%) legislators were present at the start and 23 (19%) at the adjournment of sitting while none of the agenda item except an Adjournment Motion was taken up by the House.

The sitting remained suspended for 15 minutes due to unrest in the House caused by two PTI lawmakers.

Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The KP Assembly met for an hour and 35 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1526 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• Forty lawmakers (32%) were present at the start and 23 (19%) at the end of the sitting.
• Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister was not present while the Opposition Leader attended the entire sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of JUI-F, PML-N, QWP and JI were present.
• One minority member attended the sitting.
• Thirteen members applied for leave.

Output

• The House did not consider the KP Censorship of Motion Pictures (Films, CDs, Videos, Stage Dramas and Shows) Bill 2016 and the KP Health Foundation Bill, 2016.
• A report of Standing Committee on Communication and Works Department was not taken up.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House debated an adjournment motion to give status of civil servants to staff of Assembly Secretariat and resolve their security issues. Five lawmakers participated in debate on it for 17 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PML-N female lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1654 hours but the Chair ignored it.
• Again, JUI-F lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1656 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting due to presence of lawmakers less than 25 percent.

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.

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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