ISLAMABAD, February 24, 2022: The Balochistan Assembly deferred question hour and two calling attention notices due to ministerial absence, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the second sitting of 50th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for 42 minutes.
• The sitting started at 04:33 pm against the scheduled time of 03:00 pm.
• The deputy speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of speaker.
• The leader of the house (chief minister) was not present.
• The opposition leader attended the sitting for 15 minutes.
• As many as three MPAs (five percent) were present at the outset and 15 (23 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP, PkMAP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• One out of three minority lawmakers was present.

 Output

• A lawmaker belonging to ANP moved a resolution to condemn murder of journalist Athar Mateen and arrest of Mohsin Baig. Three lawmakers spoke on it for 16 minutes but it could not be voted due to early adjournment of sitting over quorum issue.
• The House did not consider two resolutions while another resolution was deferred due to mover’s absence.

Representation and Responsiveness  

• The House did not observe question hour due to absence of minister for local government.
• The chair deferred two calling attention notices due to absence of relevant ministers.

Order and Institutionalization

• Two lawmakers spoke on points of order for nine minutes.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 05:08 pm following which the chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting and the House was adjourned to meet again on Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 03:00 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