ISLAMABAD, May 5, 2015: The Balochistan Assembly passed a bill and adopted a resolution during the seventh sitting of its ongoing session on Tuesday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The House passed the Balochistan Assembly Members’ Salaries, Allowances and Privileges (Amendment) Bill 2015, which was introduced by Minister for Services and General Administration during the previous sitting.

The House also adopted a resolution demanding the transfer of major roads in the province to the National Highway Authority. Nine lawmakers (three each from PkMAP and NP and one each from ANP, JUI-F and PML-N) spoke on the resolution, tabled by a PkMAP lawmaker, for 35 minutes.

In addition, the House held a discussion on an adjournment motion regarding dilapidated electricity infrastructure in Panjgur in which six lawmakers (two each from PML-N, NP and PkMAP) spoke for 44 minutes. The discussion was concluded by the Chief Minister during his two-minute speech to the lawmakers.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for three hours and three minutes.
• The sitting started at 1632 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• 23 members (35%) were present at the start and 21 (32%) at the end of the sitting.
• A maximum of 36 lawmakers (55%) attended the sitting.
• The entire sitting was chaired by Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of the House was present.
• The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for 50 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML, MWM, JUI-F and ANP were present.
• One minority member attended the sitting.
• Three members applied for leave.

Output

• The House passed the Balochistan Assembly Members’ Salaries, Allowances and Privileges (Amendment) Bill 2015.
• The House adopted a resolution demanding the transfer of major roads in the province to the National Highway Authority.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House discussed an adjournment motion regarding dilapidated electricity infrastructure in Panjgur.
• Seven out of eight starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken up during the sitting. Additionally, the legislators raised five supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• Six points of order (POs) consumed 20 minutes of the sitting.
• A JUI-F lawmaker pointed the quorum, which was found to be complete upon counting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.

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The 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.