ISLAMABAD, November 10, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan adopted four resolutions on various issues on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of the 35th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 59 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1611 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The post of Deputy Speaker is lying vacant since December 2015.
- The Chief Minister attended the sitting for two hours and 26 minutes.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for two hours.
- Twenty-three lawmakers (34%) were present at the start and 44 (65%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, ANP, JUI-F, PML, MWM and PML-N were present.
- Two minority members attended the sitting.
- Four members applied for leave.
Output
- Tabled by a PkMAP lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution urging the provincial government to contact the federal government for taking effective measures to put an end to drugs trafficking within the province through Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF). Twelve lawmakers spoke on the issue for 42 minutes.
- The House adopted another resolution demanding the provincial government to regularize the procedure for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Multi-National Corporations and investing firms through legislation. The resolution was tabled by a PML-N lawmaker while two lawmakers expressed their views on it, consuming 11 minutes of the proceedings.
- Tabled by a PML lawmaker, the House deferred a resolution demanding the provincial government to ensure allotment of government land for construction of MPAs Housing Scheme.
- A resolution asking the government to provide funds and ownership rights to the servants of Local Government Department belonging to minorities was adopted by the House. It was tabled by a PML-N lawmaker and three lawmakers spoke on it consuming nine minutes of the sitting.
- Tabled by a PML-N lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted another resolution, urging the provincial government to describe clear policy for upgradation of scales of servants of Local Government Department belonging to minorities.
- The House deferred an amendment to the Rules of Procedure of Assembly regarding insertion of new rule of “Sub-Committee” till next session on the request of opposition lawmakers.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The government responded to six out of 12 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda. The remaining six questions were deferred until next sitting. In addition, lawmakers asked three Supplementary Questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on 20 Points of Order consuming 39 minutes of the proceedings.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Attendance of Members was not made public.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Balochistan Assembly proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.