NGO report says lawmakers’ attendance in KP Assembly declining

Women & minority members found more regular

PESHAWAR: The attendance of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers during the provincial assembly sessions has been declining over the last four parliamentary years, a report issued by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) said. 

The report noted that average annual attendance has fallen from 78 percent during first parliamentary year to 58 percent during the ongoing fourth parliamentary year.The average session attendance registered a decrease from 97 percent during the first session to 59 percent in the last (22nd) session.

The session average touched the lowest during the 21st session when only 50 percent lawmakers on an average attended a sitting.According to the FAFEN report, a total of 22 sessions of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have been convened till February 15 this year. The number of sittings stood at 219 during this period.

Out of the present 123 members of the assembly, the average attendance in a sitting remained 80 (65 percent). On an average each member attended 139 (63 percent) sittings.The analysis of the official attendance record available on the website of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly revealed that women lawmakers were more regular than their male counterparts. The lawmakers representing the minorities also attended more than 80 percent sittings of the assembly.

The party-wise pattern of the lawmakers’ attendance show that the members belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami were more regular than other parties as 57 percent of them attended more than 160 (73 percent) sittings during the reporting period.

The percentage of other members was 50 percent in case of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP)  and 47 percent for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) lawmakers.This ratio further dropped to 36 percent and 31 percent in case of Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) lawmakers, respectively.

The 10 most regular members included seven women and one representing the minorities. They attended 88 percent or more sittings during the 22 assembly sessions.On the other hand, the 10 lawmakers who attended 40 percent or fewer sittings included Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who belongs to the PTI and the Minister for Finance Muzaffar Sayyid affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami.