ISLAMABAD, March 22, 2021:The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed two government bills and deferred question hour due to movers’ absence, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first Sitting of 35th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for two hours and six minutes.
- The sitting started at 1800 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- A Member of Panel of Chairpersons presided entire sitting in the absence of Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
- The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) was not present.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
- As many as 29 MPAs (45%) were present at the outset and 21 (32%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of HDP, ANP, MMAP and BNP-M attended the proceeding.
- Two out of three minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House passed two government bills including the Balochistan Arts Council (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Balochistan Quran Pak (Printing & Recording) Bill, 2021.
- Six reports of Standing Committees were presented in the House.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Six law makers spoke on points of order for 45 minutes which were related to regularization of contractual teachers working under Global Partnership Program.
- The House did not observe question hour while two Calling Attention Notices were deferred due to the absence of movers.
Order and Institutionalization
- The House was adjourned to meet again on March 24, 2021 (Wednesday) at 1600 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Attendance of the lawmakers was not available to media and observers.
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.