ISLAMABAD, August 24, 2020: The requisitioned session of Balochistan Assembly discussed law and order situation in the province and paid tributes to chief of the National Party, Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, who passed away on August 20, 2020, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first and last sitting of the requisitioned (25^th) session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for six hours and 38 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1705 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the proceedings for five hours and 33 minutes while remaining sitting was chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Speaker and Leader of the House were absent.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 18 MPAs (28%) were present at the outset and 15 (23%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of MMAP, PkMAP, BNP-M, BNP-A, JWP and ANP attended the proceeding.
• All three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House adopted a supplementary resolution to condole the death of chief of National Party Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo. Twenty-four lawmakers highlighted the political career of deceased Senator and spoke for an hour and two minutes.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House held general discussion regarding overall law and order situation in the province, attack on Member of Provincial Assembly Haji Zahid Ali and killing of Hyat Baloch. Three topics of discussion were clubbed after the Chair’s ruling and 17 lawmakers participated in debate for four hours and 57 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as 10 lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 32 minutes of the proceedings.
• The oppositions staged a token walkout against the remarks of a BAP lawmaker about NP leadership.
• The Session was prorogued sine die.

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.