ISLAMABAD, June 24, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan continued general discussion on annual budget while Points of Order consumed twenty three percent of the proceedings on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the budget (14th) session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for three hours and 33 minutes. However, it took a prayer break for 35 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1704 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- The Speaker did not attend the sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the proceedings for three hours and 23 minutes while a Member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired rest of the sitting.
- The Leader of the House attended entire sitting.
- The Leader of Opposition attended the proceedings for two hours and two minutes.
- As many as 16 MPAs (24%) were present at the outset and 13 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of ANP, BAP, HDP, JWP, BNP-A, PkMAP, and MMAP attended the proceedings.
- Two out of three minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Ten lawmakers – BAP (four), BNP-M (three), MMA (two), and ANP (one) – participated in general discussion on annual budget for an hour and 44 minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- Sixteen lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 49 minutes (23% of total time) of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on June 25, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1600 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Attendance of the lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.
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.