ISLAMABAD, December 23, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan left most of the agenda unaddressed due to low attendance and Opposition’s protest on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the 18th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and 52 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1501 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- A Member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the entire sitting in absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.
- The Leader of the House did not attend the proceedings.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
- As many as 17 MPAs (26%) were present at the outset and only one (2%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, ANP, MMAP and HDP attended the proceedings.
- Two out of three minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.
Output
- Moved by a BAP lawmaker, the House passed a resolution condemning the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and demanded the Federal Government to approach the International Community to ensure protection of minority rights in India. The mover of the resolution spoke on it for three minutes.
- The Adviser to Chief Minister on Excise and Taxation presented a report of the Standing Committee on the Balochistan Housing and Town Planning Authority Bill, 2019.
- The House did not consider another eight reports appearing on its agenda.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up two out of ten starred questions while the lawmakers asked three supplementary questions as well.
- The Education Minister responded to a Call Attention Notice regarding appointment of staff in the Education department.
Order and Institutionalization
- Five lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 13 minutes of the proceedings.
- The Opposition lawmakers protested for 44 minutes against the government for not providing basic facilities to residents of Gwadar.
- A MMAP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1642 hours which led to early adjournment of sitting after ringing of the bells for ten minutes and recounting.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on December 26, 2019 (Thursday) at 1400 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