ISLAMABAD, April 23, 2014: The Balochistan Assembly started pre-budget debate during second sitting of its 9^th session on Wednesday, giving opportunity to lawmakers to highlight their priorities for provincial budget  2014-15, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

PML-N lawmaker moved an adjournment motion regarding target killing in District Kachi. It was agreed to have discussion on it in the sitting on April 30 (Wednesday), 2014.

Following are some key observations of the proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 40 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1640 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours, witnessing a delay of 40 minutes.
• Twenty-four members were present at the outset while 12 were there at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The Speaker and Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting. A member of panel of chairpersons presided over the entire proceeding.
• The Chief Minister was not present while the Leader of Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 20 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML, JUI-F and ANP were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.
• Four members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Nine lawmakers- NP (4), PkMAP (2) and one each of PML, ANP and JUI-F- participated in the pre-budget debate for two hours and four minutes.
• PML-N lawmaker moved an adjournment motion regarding target killing in District Kachi. It was agreed to have discussion on it in the sitting on April 30, 2014.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on four points of order, consuming ten minutes of the proceedings.
• JUI-F lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1913 hours, however, the proceedings continued. The House was later adjourned at 1920 hours to meet again on April 26 (Saturday) at 1100 hours.

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.

 

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Balochistan Assembly proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD), a Member organization of FAFEN.