ISLAMABAD, June 25, 2019: The Balochistan Assembly continued debate on Provincial Annual Budget for Financial Year 2019-20 which consumed 98 percent of proceedings on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the budget (14th) session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for four hours and 13 minutes. However, it took a prayer break for 44 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1713 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 seven minutes while a Member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired rest of the sitting.
- The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 20 minutes.
- The Leader of Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Only six MPAs (9%) were present at the outset and 20 (29%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of BNP, ANP, PkMAP, BAP and HDP attended the proceedings.
- One out of three minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Seven lawmakers – BNP and BNP-M (two each), BAP, HDP and PkMAP (on each) – participated in general discussion on annual budget for three hour and 25 minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- A lawmaker raised a Point of Order consuming two minutes of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on June 26, 2019 (Wednesday) at 1100 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.