ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: The third sitting of the Balochistan Assembly met for only 20 minutes with low attendance of Members. A total of 13 Members at the outset and 14 at the end of the sitting were present.

The Question Hour was not held during the sitting.

Six Points of Order were raised, which consumed 18 minutes of the sitting time. None of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling. Unless the Chair gives a formal ruling on a Point of Order, it does not contribute to any assembly output.

The Chief Minster and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting. The parliamentary leader of the JUI (Ideological) attended the proceedings.

The sitting witnessed a protest by NP Members over the recent killing of Dr Naseer Baloch.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for 20 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1200 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1100 hours. The House proceedings started late by an hour.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting. The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minster and the Leader of the Opposition were not present.
• Only the Parliamentary Leader of the JUI (Ideological) was present, while the leaders of Like Minded Group, PML, ANP, BNPA, JUI, NP and PMLN were absent.
• Thirteen Members (21% of total Membership) were present at the start, while 14 (22%) were present when the sitting was adjourned.
• One Minority Member was present during the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Question Hour was not held during the sitting.

Output

• No Bills appeared on the Orders of the Day.

Order and Institutionalization

• Six Points of Order were raised, which consumed 18 minutes of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• NP Members protested over the recent killing of Dr Naseer Baloch during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages during the sitting. However, the lack of Quorum was not pointed out by any of the Members.

After successfully observing proceedings of the National Assembly, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has started the observation of the provincial assemblies – Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – and the Senate. This daily factsheet is based on FAFEN’s direct observation of the third sitting of 29th session of the Balochistan Assembly. These reports will be released on the day the sittings are held to provide media and other interested stakeholders vital statistics about the Assembly proceedings to encourage informed public discourse on its performance.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Balochistan Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development (CPD), a member organization of FAFEN