ISLAMABAD, May 14, 2015: The Balochistan Assembly met for one of its shortest sittings on Thursday when the Deputy Speaker announced adjournment to express grief over the loss of innocent lives in the wake of terrorist attack on a bus in Karachi the previous day, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The sitting started 31 minutes behind the schedule with 23 lawmakers (35%) present at the start and at the time of adjournment.

Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for four minutes.
• The sitting started at 1631 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• 23 lawmakers (35%) were present at the start and at the end of the sitting.
• The sitting was entirely chaired by Deputy Speaker.
• The Chief Minister attended the sitting while the Opposition Leader was not present.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML and ANP were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.
• None of the member applied for leave.

Order and Institutionalization

 Two points of order consumed one minute of the sitting.

Transparency

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