ISLAMABAD, August 26, 2020: The Balochistan Assembly passed three government bills after skipping their mandatory three readings amid opposition’s protest, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first and last sitting of the 26th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for three hours and 50 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1715 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the proceedings for an hour and 30 minutes, the Deputy Speaker for an hour and 48 minutes while rest of the sitting was chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
- The Leader of the House was absent.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
- As many as four MPAs (6%) were present at the outset and 11 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary Leaders of BNP-M, JWP, PkMAP, BAP, MMAP, BNP-A and HDP attended the proceeding.
- Two out of three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- The House adopted a supplementary resolution to pay tribute to Nawab Akbar Bugti on his death anniversary. Eleven lawmakers spoke on this resolution for an hour and 59 minutes.
- The Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business were dispensed through passage of motions for immediate consideration of the three bills following which these were passed after voice voting. These bills were the Balochistan Waqf Property Bill, 2020; the Balochistan Trust Bill, 2020 and the Balochistan Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
- The House did not consider a resolution appearing on the agenda which demanded to authorize the Parliament for necessary amendment in the Disaster Management Act 2010 to combat any calamity.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up eight out 12 starred questions while four questions were deferred due to movers’ absence. In addition, lawmakers asked seven supplementary questions.
- The House considered zero hour notice regarding induction in various departments through fake domiciles. Three lawmakers participated in debate on it for 25 minutes.
- A privilege motion of BNP-M lawmaker was referred to the relevant committee.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as five lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 11 minutes of the proceedings.
- The opposition protested during the proceedings against hasty legislation and also walked out from the House for 11 minutes on the same issue.
- The Session was prorogued sine die.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- The attendance of 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