ISLAMABAD, April 30, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan did not take up any of the regular agenda except question hour on Tuesday and consumed 53 percent of the proceedings on Points of Order, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the 12th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for three hours and one minute; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 43 minutes due to prayer break.
- The sitting started at 1713 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- A member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
- The Leader of the House attended the proceedings for an hour and 14 minutes.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
- As many as 14 MPAs (22%) were present at the outset while 38 (58%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary Leaders of ANP, HDP, MMAP, BAP, PkMAP and BNP-M attended the proceedings.
- Two out of three minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House did not take up a report of Standing Committee regarding performance and challenges to various government departments.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Ministers responded to 14 out of 16 Starred Questions while the remaining two questions were deferred due to absence of mover and the concerned minister. The lawmakers asked 22 supplementary questions as well.
- Two Adjournment Motions and as many Zero Hour notices remained unaddressed.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as eight lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming an hour and ten minutes of the proceedings.
- A PKMAP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1715 hours but it was found complete on headcount after ringing of the bells for five minutes.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on May 3, 2019 (Friday) at 1600 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.