ISLAMABAD, August 16, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan elected its Speaker and the Deputy Speaker on Thursday and was adjourned due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

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

 Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for six hours and 30 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 67 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1540 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The outgoing Speaker presided over the proceedings for an hour and 55 minutes hours while rest of the proceedings were chaired by the newly elected Speaker.
• As many as 59 (91% of the total membership) members were present at the outset and 14 (22%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• As many as 59 lawmakers voted in the election of the Speaker and 58 in the election of the Deputy Speaker.
• Three minority lawmakers were present.

Election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker

• The House elected BAP’s Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo and PTI’s Sardar Babar Musa Khel as its Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, respectively.
• Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo got 39 votes against 20 votes secured by MMA nominee Muhammad Nawaz for the Speaker.
• Sardar Babar Musa Khel got 36 votes against 21 votes secured by BNP-M candidate Ahmed Nawaz for the Deputy Speaker while one ballot was rejected.
• The outgoing speaker administered the oath to the Speaker-elect while the Deputy Speaker took oath from the Speaker.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as 14 lawmakers made speeches following the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker consuming two hours and eight minutes of the proceedings.
• Three points of order consumed six minutes of the proceedings.
• A PkMAP lawmaker staged a walkout from the House for five minutes against alleged rigging in General Elections on July 25, 2018.
• A BNP-M lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 2205 hour following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. However, the sitting had to be adjourned at 2210 hours due to presence of less than 25 percent lawmakers in the House.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on August 18, 2018 (Saturday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

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

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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.