- Session Prorogued
ISLAMABAD, August 10, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed three government bills amid low attendance of the lawmakers in the House on Saturday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the fourth and last sitting of the 15th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and 20 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1309 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in absence of the Speaker.
- The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for an hour and five minutes.
- As many as 29 MPAs (45%) were present at the outset and 17 (26%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of HDP, BAP, BNP-M, PkMAP, and MMAP attended the proceedings.
- All three minority lawmakers were absent.
Output
- Moved by the Minister for Education, the House passed the Balochistan Essential Education Services Bill, 2019 as recommended by the Standing Committee.
- Moved by Chief Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary on behalf of the Home Minister, the House also passed the Limitation (Balochistan Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Balochistan Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2019. Both bills were passed without any deliberations in the concerned standing committees as the mover, prior to the introduction of bills, moved motions to exempt the relevant Rule (84) of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business which were adopted by the House.
- The Finance Minister presented the Auditor-General’s report on the Government Expenditures for Financial Year 2018-19 in the House.
Order and Institutionalization
- A BNP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1409 hours; however, the Chair ignored it.
- The entire opposition walked out of the proceedings at 1414 hours against the attitude of the Chair who allowed to move motions for passage of government bills without referring them to the concerned standing committees. They did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.
- The lawmakers spoke on four points of order consuming 26 minutes of the proceedings.
- The Session was prorogued sine die.
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