ISLAMABAD, July 14, 2020: The requisitioned session of Balochistan Assembly on Tuesday discussed the issues of locust invasion and load-shedding in the Province, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fist sitting of 23^rd session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for four hours and 42 minutes, however, the proceedings remained suspended for 31 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1708 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for three hours and 41 minutes while the reaming sitting was chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the proceedings.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 24 MPAs (37%) were present at the outset and nine (15%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP, BNP-M , PkMAP, ANP and HDP and BNP-A attended the proceedings.
• All three minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as twelve lawmakers discussed the issues of locust invasion and unscheduled load-shedding in the province for three hours and 32 minutes.
• Two identical adjournment motions regarding closure of Afghan border due to COVID-19 were merged and admitted for discussion in the next sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as seven lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for 25 minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on July 17, 2020 (Friday) at 1600 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Attendance of the 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