ISLAMABAD, September 24, 2012: The Balochistan Assembly, which met for three hours and five minutes during the third sitting of the ongoing 33^rd session, continued to witness low attendance of Members.

The House passed the University of Loralai Bill and adopted two Resolutions on clean drinking water and agriculture.

Four Points of Order consumed 30 minutes of the sitting time. None of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling. The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for three hours and five minutes.
• The sitting started at 1635 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1600 hours. The proceedings started 35 minutes late.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting. The Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• Only the parliamentary leaders of ANP and JUI were present.
• Fifteen (24%) Members were present at the outset while there were 11 (16%) at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 21 Members were present at one point of the sitting.
• One Member applied for leave.
• The House took a 35-minute break.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Five Starred Questions appearing on the Agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant Minister. Additionally, seven Supplementary Questions were also asked.

Output

• The House passed the University of Loralai Bill 2012 during the sitting. A total of 11 Members were present when the bill was passed.
• The House adopted two Resolutions about drinking water and agriculture during the sitting.

Order and institutionalization

• Four Points of Order consumed 30 minutes. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts.

 Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Balochistan Assembly proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD), a Member organization of FAFEN.