Balochistan Assembly Calls for Setting up Health, Education Commissions  

ISLAMABAD, November 4, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan unanimously adopted two resolutions urging the government to establish health and education commissions for province on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during second sitting of the 35th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 35 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1517 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The post of Deputy Speaker is lying vacant since December 2015.
  • The Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition were absent.
  • Thirteen lawmakers (19%) were present at the start and 19 (28%) at adjournment of the sitting.
  • The Parliamentary leaders of ANP and NP were present.
  • Three minority members attended the sitting.
  • Four members applied for leave.

Output

  • The House unanimously adopted a joint resolution urging the provincial government to establish provincial education commission. Twelve lawmakers spoke on the subject of resolution consuming 40 minutes of the proceedings.
  • Another joint resolution demanding the government to establish provincial health commission was also passed. Ten lawmakers expressed their views on it consuming 55 minutes of the proceedings.
  • The Advisor to Chief Minister on Law and Parliamentary Affairs presented the Audit Report for 2015-16 before the House. The report was referred to the Public Accounts Committee.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House deferred five Starred Questions appearing on the agenda due to the absence of relevant minister.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The lawmakers spoke on ten Points of Order consuming 23 minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
  • Attendance of Members was not made public.

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.