ISLAMABAD, January 14, 2016: The Balochistan Assembly took up all agenda items appearing on the list of business during the third sitting of its 25th session on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Some key observations are as follows:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Balochistan Assembly met for an hour and 22 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1644 hours against its scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- 28 (41%) lawmakers were present at the start and 25 (37%) at the time of adjournment of sitting.
- A maximum of 40 (59%) members attended the sitting.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for 24 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 attended the entire sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition was absent.
- Parliamentary leaders of PML, PML-N, MWM and PkMAP attended the sitting.
- Two minority members attended the sitting.
- Six members applied for leave.
Output
- Tabled by a PkMAP lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a joint resolution urging the government to provide employment opportunities to local citizens in federal public departments as per allocated quota. Nine members debated resolution for 50 minutes.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up five out of six starred questions appearing on the agenda. Members also asked three supplementary questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- Lawmakers spoke on seven Points of Order consuming nine minutes of the sitting. Members raised issues related to postings of government officials, allegations of corruption on Finance department, esteems to CM and prayers for victims of Quetta blast.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Attendance of Members was not made public.
To download the factsheet, click here for English Version, click here for Urdu Version
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.