Balochistan Assembly passes two govt. bills

ISLAMABAD, April 11, 2022: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan transacted entire agenda and passed two government bills on Monday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the second sitting of 52nd session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for an hour.
  • The sitting started at 02:39 pm against the scheduled time of 01:00 pm.
  • The deputy speaker presided over the entire proceedings in the absence of speaker.
  • The leader of the house (chief minister) and the leader of the opposition attended the entire sitting.
  • As many as 15 (23 percent) legislators were present at the start and 27 (42 percent) at the end of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, MMAP, BNP-M, BAP, HDP and BNP-A attended the sitting.
  • One out of three minority members was present.

 Output

  • Moved by the Minister for education, the House passed the Balochistan Universities Bill, 2022 with majority vote. Nineteen lawmakers voted in favor of the bill while 13 opposed it.
  • Parliamentary secretary for labor and manpower introduced the Balochistan Home Based Workers Bill, 2022 which was passed by the House.

 Representation and Responsiveness 

  • The House took up four out of eight starred questions while lawmakers asked four supplementary questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

  • Three  lawmakers spoke on points of order for eight minutes.
  • Lawmakers belonging to PkMAP, ANP and MMAP staged token walk out from the House against the passage of the Balochistan Universities Bill, 2022.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 01:00 pm.

Transparency

  • ‘List of Business’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
  • The attendance of lawmakers was 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