ISLAMABAD, March 4, 2017: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan transacted entire business appearing on List of Business on Saturday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the proceedings of third sitting of Assembly’s 37^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1142 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The proceedings remained suspended for 32 minutes due to absence of government officials.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for an hour and three minutes.
• Twelve lawmakers (18%) were present at the outset and 13 (19%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP and JUI-F were present during the proceedings.
• Two minority members also attended the sitting.
• Four members applied for leave.

Output

• The House adopted a resolution condemning the racial profiling of Pashtun and Baloch communities in Punjab and Sindh.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Services and General Administration presented the report of the committee on its visit to the Balochistan Houses located in Islamabad and Karachi.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House discussed two Adjournment Motions (AMs) regarding racial profiling of Pashtun and Baloch communities in Punjab and Sindh. Twelve lawmakers took part in the discussion consuming an hour and 56 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on four Points of Order consuming five minutes of the proceedings.
• Lawmakers belonging to Opposition parties – PkMAP, PML-Q and PML-N – staged a walkout absence of secretaries of government departments. They returned to the House after 36 minutes.

Transparency

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

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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.