ISLAMABAD, February 01, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan  passed two government bills on Monday including the Right to Information Bill 2021, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the 3^rd sitting of 32^nd session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and eleven minutes.
• The sitting started at 1711 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Deputy speaker was also present.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the sitting for 37 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as eight MPAs (12%) were present at the outset and 11 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP, BNP-M, PKMAP and HDP attended the proceedings.
• Three out of three minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• The House passed two government bills including the Balochistan District Courts Bill, 2021 and the Balochistan Right to Information Bill, 2021.
• The Chair referred a government Bill – the Balochistan Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2021 – to the relevant Committee after its introduction in the House.
• The Home Minister withdrew the Balochistan Land revenue (Amendment) Bill 2019.
• The House witnessed presentation of Auditor General of Pakistan Audit Report for the Year 2019-20.
• The House adopted a resolution demanding the Provincial Government to contact with the Federal Government for immediate check on illegal supply of apples from Iran.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two out of 11 starred questions while lawmakers also asked two supplementary questions.
• The House took up a Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding the regularization of contract teachers of community schools. Two lawmakers spoke on it for 28 minutes while Provincial Minister for Education responded to it.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion for debate in next sitting while a CAN on the agenda was deferred.

Order and Institutionalization

• Two lawmakers spoke on one point of order for twenty minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again February 4, 2021 (Thursday) 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