Balochistan Assembly Debates Law and Order Situation

ISLAMABAD, April 9, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan discussed law and order situation and damage caused by heavy rainfall in the province, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceeding during last (second) sitting of the requisitioned (11th) session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for two hours and 52 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 40 minutes due to prayers break.
  • The sitting started at 1724 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
  • A member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired the entire sitting.
  • The Speaker, Deputy 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 while only two (3%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The Parliamentary Leaders of ANP, PkMAP and MMAP attended the proceeding.
  • All three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House held general discussion on overall law and order situation and destruction caused by recent spell of heavy rainfall in the province. Both topics of discussion were clubbed after the Chair’s ruling. As many as 14 lawmakers participated in debate for an hour and 45 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

  • As many as five lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 18 minutes of the proceedings.

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.