ISLAMABAD, June 18, 2017: The Balochistan Assembly opened debate on the Provincial Budget 2017-18 with the speech of Leader of the Opposition on Sunday, reports Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of the 42nd session:
Members’ Participation
- The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 35 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1133 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader attended the entire proceedings.
- Twenty-eight lawmakers (43%) were present at the outset and 38 (58%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- Parliamentary leaders of PML-N, JUI-F, PKMAP, ANP and PML were present.
- Three minority members also attended the sitting.
- Three members applied for leave.
Output
- The House approved 19 Supplementary Demands for Grants for financial year 2016-17.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Leader of the Opposition opened the Budget debate and spoke for 30 minutes.
- Five other lawmakers spoke on provincial budget for an hour and eleven minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- NP lawmakers walked out of the House for eight minutes after exchange of heated arguments with PkMAP members on an issue of budgetary allocation.
- Four Points of Order consumed nine 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.