Balochistan Assembly Witnesses Presentation of Budget 2018-19

ISLAMABAD, May 14, 2018: The Government of Balochistan presented the Budget Statement for year 2018-19 in the Provincial Assembly on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the Assembly’s 52nd session:

 Members’ Participation 

  • The Balochistan Assembly met for an hour and five minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1650 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for the entire sitting.
  • The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader attended the entire sitting.
  • As many as 43 lawmakers (66%) were present at the outset and 52 (80%) at the adjournment of sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, NP, MWM, ANP, PML and JUI-F were present during the proceedings.
  • Three minority members attended the sitting.

 Output

  • The Advisor to Chief Minister on Finance presented the Annual Budget Statement for the year 2018-2019 in the House consuming 56 minutes of the proceedings.

 Order and Institutionalization

  • An NP lawmaker walked out of the House at 1715 hours on his reservation about ignoring his constituency by the government. He did not return to the House till adjournment of sitting.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was not available on the website of the Assembly.
  • 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