ISLAMABAD, October 20, 2021: The Balochistan Assembly admitted no-confidence resolution against the chief minister and voting would be held on it on October 25, 2021, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Members’ Participation

• The House met for five hours and 33 minutes.
• The sitting started at 04:20 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker was also present.
• The leaders of the House (chief minister) and the opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 55 MPAs (85 percent) were present at the outset and 42 (65 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of BNP-A, ANP, BAP, BNP-M, HDP, MMAP, PkMAP and JWP attended the proceedings.
• All three minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• Tabled by a BAP lawmaker, the House admitted no-confidence resolution against chief minister as 33 out of 65 lawmakers (51 percent) rose on their seats in favor of the resolution. Twenty-one lawmakers including leaders of the House and the opposition spoke on it for five hours and 18 minutes. According to clause (1) of Article 136 of the Constitution, a resolution for a vote of no-confidence moved by not less than twenty percent of the total membership of the Provincial Assembly may be passed against the chief minister.
• The Chair announced formal voting on the resolution on October 25, 2021. According to the clause (2) of Article 136 of the Constitution, voting on no-confidence resolution shall not be held before the expiration of three days, or later than seven days, from the day on which such resolution is moved in the Provincial Assembly.

Order and Institutionalization

• A BAP lawmaker spoke on a point of order for two minutes and announced to resign from the provincial cabinet.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, October 25, 2021 at 11:00 am.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

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