ISLAMABAD, November 19, 2021: The Balochistan Assembly adopted two resolutions and deferred question hour on the request of relevant minister, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet on Friday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the 47th session: 

 Members’ Participation

• The House met for 56 minutes.
• The sitting started at 04:20 pm against the scheduled time of 03:00 pm.
• The deputy speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of speaker.
• The leader of the house did not attend the sitting.
• The leader of the opposition was present during the entire proceedings.
• As many as eight (12%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 13 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP, BAP, PkMAP and BNP-M attended the sitting.
• One minority lawmaker was present.

Output

• The House adopted two resolutions demanding to set up passport office in District Washuk and traffic engineering bureau to resolve traffic related issues in Quetta city. Four lawmakers spoke on these resolutions for 20 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The Chair deferred question hour on the request of minister for local government.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers spoke on points of order for 36 minutes which were regarding disappearance of two students from University of Balochistan, Quetta.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, November 22, 2021 at 03:00 pm.

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