Balochistan Assembly Sitting Adjourned due to Lack of Quorum

ISLAMABAD, March 15, 2018: The Balochistan Assembly was adjourned on Thursday due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the first sitting of the Assembly’s 50^th session:

 Members’ Participation 

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 49 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1633 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 15 lawmakers (23%) were present at the outset and 16 (24%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of NP, PkMAP, PML, MWM and ANP were present during the proceedings.
• One minority member attended the sitting.
• Eight members applied for leave.

Output

• The House adopted three resolutions to pay tribute to renowned lawyer late Asma Jehangir, establish office of Press Council of Pakistan in Quetta and ensure convenient payment of pension to family members of deceased police employees.
• The Chair deferred a resolution to make laws about fee structure as well as timings of private medical clinics and hospitals due to absence of mover.
• Another resolution about promotion of livestock activities in District Musakhel remained pending due to early adjournment of sitting after lack of quorum. However, two lawmakers spoke on it for 18 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not observe question hour due to absence of relevant minister.
• An adjournment motion about strike of doctors was discussed by six lawmakers for 21 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• Nine points of order consumed 54 minutes of the proceedings.
• An NP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1917 hours which led to the adjournment of sitting till March 17, 2018 after counting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Attendance of Members was not made public.

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.

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