ISLAMABAD, November 27, 2020: The Balochistan Assembly on Friday adopted five private members’ resolutions and discussed an adjournment motion related to murder of a political worker in Pishin, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of 29^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 44 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1721 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 32 minutes while rest of the sitting was chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 12 MPAs (18%) were present at the outset and 11 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, BNP-M, ANP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• All three minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House adopted five resolutions appearing on `Orders of the Day’. The private members through resolutions demanded of the provincial government to upgrade the Mashkail union council to town, retrieve the land of minority community from the grabbers, curb one-wheeling practice in Quetta, set up women police stations and avoid declaring private land in Gwadar or other parts as state property.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up four out of nine starred questions while five questions related to Ministry of Education were deferred due to the absence of Minister. All addressed questions were related to Ministry of Planning and Development.
• Four Call Attention Notices (CANs) on the agenda remained unaddressed due to the absence of relevant Ministers.
• Four lawmakers debated an adjournment motion for 30 minutes which was related to murder of a political worker in Pishin on November 9, 2020.

Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers spoke on points of order for 32 minutes that were related to arrests of Community School Teachers protesting for their regularization.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on November 30, 2020 (Monday) at 1600 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of the lawmakers was not available to media and observers.

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