ISLAMABAD, August 5, 2019 The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan addressed its entire agenda on Monday and unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn elimination of special status to Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) by the Indian government, observers Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the second sitting of the 15th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for four hours and 35 minutes
- The sitting started at 1637 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 30 minutes while a member of panel of chairperson chaired the rest of the sitting.
- The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and 55 minutes.
- The Leader of the Opposition remained present during the entire proceedings.
- As many as 17 MPAs (26%) were present at the outset and 22 (34%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of JWP, BNP-M, BNP-A, BAP, PTI, MMAP, PkMAP and HDP attended the proceedings.
- Two out of three minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.
Output
- A government bill – the Balochistan Health Care Commission Bill, 2019 – was introduced in the House which was referred to the relevant committee for further consideration.
- The House unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn elimination of special status to IHK by the Indian government after the revocation of Article 370 of its Constitution through Presidential Order. Earlier, 10 lawmakers spoke on it for an hour and 22 minutes.
- The House adopted two reports of Standing Committees on Social Welfare and Agriculture regarding performance of their relevant departments.
- Three reports of National Finance Commission and two statutory reports were also presented in the House.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House debated an adjournment motion regarding huge penalty to Pakistan in Reko Diq case by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute. Seven lawmakers discussed it for two hours and 29 minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- A lawmaker spoke on a point of order consuming four minutes of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on August 8, 2019 (Thursday) at 1600 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