ISLAMABAD, May 25, 2015: The Balochistan Assembly was forced to defer its question hour on Monday due to the late arrival of the Minister for Public Health Engineering, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The sitting started 31 minutes behind the schedule with 17 lawmakers (26%) present at the start and 19 (29%) at the time of adjournment. The Chief Minister attended the entire sitting, while the Opposition Leader was not present.

The House adopted a resolution demanding 4% allocation for the education sector in the upcoming federal budget. Seven lawmakers (three from PkMAP, two from JUI-F and one each from PML and PML-N) debated the resolution for 37 minutes.

Five lawmakers debated an adjournment motion (AM) on the arrest of Pashtuns in Punjab for 34 minutes. The AM was converted into a resolution and adopted by the House.

The lawmakers raised 12 points of order (POs) that consumed 24% of the proceedings’ time. The Balochistan Forensic Science Agency Bill 2015 and the Balochistan Child Welfare Protection Bill 2015 were also introduced during the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the assembly business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 19 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1631 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• 17 lawmakers (26%) were present at the start and 19 (29%) at the end of the sitting.
• A maximum of 32 (49%) members were present at one point of the sitting.
• The sitting was entirely chaired by a member of the Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Chief Minister attended the entire sitting.
• The Opposition Leader was not present.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, ANP and PML were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.
• None of the member applied for leave.

Output

• The House adopted a resolution demanding 4% allocation for the education sector in the upcoming federal budget.
• Seven lawmakers (three from PkMAP, two from JUI-F and one each from PML and PML-N) debated the resolution for 37 minutes.
• The Balochistan Forensic Science Agency Bill 2015 and the Balochistan Child Welfare Protection Bill 2015 were introduced during the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Five PkMAP lawmakers debated an adjournment motion on the arrest of Pakhtuns in Punjab for 34 minutes.
• The AM was converted into a resolution and adopted by the House.
• The House left four questions unaddressed due to the late arrival of the Minister for Public Health Engineering.
• Another adjournment motion on water shortage in Quetta was admitted for a debate in the next sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• Twelve POs consumed 34 minutes of the sitting.
• A JUI-F lawmaker pointed out the quorum, which was found to be complete upon counting.
• The sitting witnessed a nine-minute walkout by two lawmakers for not getting sufficient time to read the Balochistan Child Welfare Protection Bill 2015.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and the public.
• Information on legislators’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.

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Update: An earlier version of this factsheet did not mention the conversion of an adjournment motion into a resolution that was adopted by the House.

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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.