Balochistan Assembly Elects New Leader of the House

ISLAMABAD, January 13, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan elected Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo as new Leader of the House on Saturday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo was elected as the 23rd Chief Minister of the Province and he secured 41 votes while Agha Syed Liaqat Ali got 13 votes.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the first and last sitting of the Assembly’s 48th session:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

  • The Balochistan Assembly met for three hours and 38 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1152 hours against the scheduled time of 1130 hour.
  • As many as 54 (83%) lawmakers were present at the start and 32 (49%) at the time of adjournment of sitting.
  • A maximum of 54 (83%) members attended the sitting.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
  • Parliamentary leaders of BNP, ANP, PkMAP, MWM, JUI-F, BNP-A and PML attended the sitting.
  • Two minority members attended the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The Chief Minister-elect addressed the House for 17 minutes. As many as 28 other lawmakers also spoke on the subject of the election of the Chief Minister consuming two hours and 23 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

  • One Point of Order consumed one minute of the sitting.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
  • Attendance of Members was not made public.

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.