ISLAMABAD, December 26, 2019: The Balochistan Assembly’s 18th session was prorogued sine die on Thursday leaving most of its scheduled business unaddressed due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during last (fourth) sitting of the 18th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for four hours and 31 minutes, however, the sitting remained suspended for 49 minutes due to prayer break.
- The sitting started at 1539 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in absence of the Speaker.
- The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 20 minutes.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
- As many as seven (11%) MPAs were present at the outset and eleven (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of BAP, HDP, ANP, MMAP, BNP-M and PkMAP attended the proceedings.
- Two out of three minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.
Output
- Moved jointly by BAP lawmakers, the House adopted a private resolution recommending the government to provide all developmental facilities at Gwadar Port. Five lawmakers spoke on it for an hour and five minutes.
- Moved by a PkMAP lawmaker, the House adopted another private resolution that urged the government to make efforts for pavement of the roads and maintenance of infrastructure in Sariab, Quetta. As many as seven lawmakers spoke on it for 28 minutes. Another private resolution on agenda was dropped due to absence of its mover.
- The House did not consider two reports of the Standing Committees and six Audit Report appearing on Orders of the Day due to lack of quorum.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up four out of 16 starred questions while the lawmakers asked five supplementary questions as well.
- The Parliamentary Secretary on behalf of the Minister for Health responded to a Call Attention Notices highlighting issue related to allocation of the funds for construction of a cancer hospital in Quetta.
- The House did not consider two Adjournment Motions appearing on agenda due to lack of quorum.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as eight lawmakers spoke on three Points of Order consuming an hour and 15 minutes of the proceedings.
- A BNP-M lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 2009 hours after which 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