ISLAMABAD, October 15, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan did not take up most of its regular business due to lack of quorum on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the 16th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for three hours and 24 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 42 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1627 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 44 minutes while rest of the sitting was chaired by 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 13 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, BNP-M, MMAP and BNP-A attended the proceedings.
- Two out of three minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House did not consider two reports of as many Standing Committees, one statutory report and two motions proposing amendments in the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Sponsored by a BNP lawmaker, the Chair admitted an Adjournment Motion for debate in the next sitting which was about increasing unemployment in the province.
- The House took up five out of 18 starred questions while the lawmakers asked seven supplementary questions as well.
- Two zero hour notices remained unaddressed due to lack of quorum.
Order and Institutionalization
- Twenty lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for an hour and 35 minutes.
- A PkMAP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1750 hours which led to the adjournment of sitting after counting.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on October 18, 2019 (Friday) at 1500 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