ISLAMABAD, April 27, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan was adjourned on Saturday due to lack of quorum leaving entire agenda unaddressed, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceeding during second sitting of the 12th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for 34 minutes; however, the proceeding remained suspended for 15 minutes due to lack of quorum.
- The sitting started at 1635 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition were absent.
- As many as eight MPAs (12%) were present at the outset while 13 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary Leaders of PTI, PkMAP and HDP attended the proceeding.
- All three minority lawmakers were absent.
Output
- The House did not take up any agenda item appearing on `Orders of the Day’.
Order and Institutionalization
- A lawmaker spoke on a Point of Order for two minutes.
- An MMAP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1638 hours but it was found complete upon counting.
- A BNP-M legislator pointed out the quorum at 1646 hours that led to the ringing of the bells for five minutes and subsequently suspension of the proceedings for 15 minutes. The quorum was found incomplete again on the resumption of proceedings and the House was adjourned to meet again on April 30, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1500 hours.
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.