ISLAMABAD, June 23, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan consumed 91 percent of its proceedings in debate on the provincial annual budget for the financial year, 2021-2022, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the budget (40th) session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 28 minutes.
• The sitting started at 05:32 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire sitting, while the deputy speaker was also present.
• The leader of the House (Chief Minister) was absent.
• The opposition leader did not attend the sitting.
• As many as fourteen MPAs (22 percent) were present at the outset and thirteen (20 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of BNP-A, PTI, JWP and HDP attended the proceedings.
• As many as one out of three minority lawmakers was present.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• Seven lawmakers participated in debate on provincial budget for two hours and 14 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• All opposition remained absent from the proceedings of the House.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 04:00 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.