ISLAMABAD, September 24, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed one government bill and adopted a joint resolution appearing on its agenda on Saturday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during 3rd sitting of the 34th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and six minutes.
- The sitting started at 1651 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for one hour and 17 minutes while the rest of the proceeding was chaired by a Member of Panel of Chairpersons.
- The post of Deputy Speaker is lying vacant.
- The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader were absent.
- Twenty-two lawmakers (32%) were present at the start and 20 (29%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary leaders of PML, ANP, and PkMAP were present.
- Two minority members attended the sitting.
- Five members applied for leave.
Output
- Tabled by the Minister for Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD), the House passed the Balochistan Employees Efficiency and Discipline (Amendment) Bill, 2016 following the presentation of committee report on it.
- A resolution jointly tabled by lawmakers urging the federal government to issue funds for less developed areas in the province was unanimously adopted by the House. 13 lawmakers expressed their views on the matter consuming one hour and 40 minutes of the sitting time.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on two Points of Order consuming five minutes of the proceedings.
- Lawmakers belonging to NP walked out of the House at 1702 hours against the government for not taking them into confidence on important decisions. However, they joined the proceedings after 54 minutes.
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 proceeding conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.