ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: The third sitting of the Balochistan Assembly spanning two hours and 10 minutes witnessed low attendance. Only 14 Members were present at the outset and nine when the sitting was adjourned.

The Quorum, visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting, was not pointed out by any of the MPAs.

Twenty Points of Order consumed 60 minutes of the sitting time. None of them attracted the Chair’s formal ruling. Unless the Chair gives a formal ruling on a Point of Order, it does not contribute to any assembly output.

The House adopted two Resolutions condemning the killing of the family members of an Independent Member (Mir Bakhtiar Khan Domki), and for an end to unscheduled load shedding of electricity.

The Chief Minster and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting. The parliamentary leader of the JUI (Ideological) attended the proceedings.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business.

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 10 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1143 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1100 hours. The House proceedings started late by 43 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the sitting for an hour and 44 minutes while the remaining time was presided over by a Member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Chief Minster and the Leader of the Opposition were absent.
• Only the Parliamentary Leader of the JUI (Ideological) was present, while those of Like Minded Group, PML, ANP, BNPA, JUI, NP and PMLN were absent.
• Only 14 Members (21% of total Membership – 65) were present at the start and nine (14%) when the sitting was adjourned.
• A maximum of 20 (31%) Members were present at any one point of the sitting.
• Eight Members applied for leave to be absent from the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• All five questions present on the agenda were taken up and responded by the relevant Ministry.
• The House adopted two Resolutions condemning the killing of the family members of an Independent Member (Mir Bakhtiar Khan Domki), and for an end to unscheduled load shedding of electricity.
• An Adjournment Motion regarding the load shedding of the electricity was moved by a PML Legislator.
• A total of 17 Members debated the Motion for 30 minutes.

Output

• No Bills appeared on the Orders of the Day.

Order and Institutionalization

• Twenty Points of Order consumed 60 minutes (46%) of the sitting time. 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 Quorum, visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting, was not pointed by any of the Legislators.

After successfully observing proceedings of the National Assembly, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has started the observation of the provincial assemblies – Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – and the Senate.This daily factsheet is based on FAFEN’s direct observation of the third sitting of 30th session of the Balochistan Assembly.These reports are released on the day the sittings are held to provide media and other interested stakeholders vital statistics about the Assembly proceedings to encourage informed public discourse on its performance.

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