ISLAMABAD, December 20, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan took up entire Private Members’ agenda and adopted four resolutions on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of the 18^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The House met for five hours and ten minutes, however, the proceedings remained suspended for an hour and 15 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1204 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for three hours and nine minutes while rest of the proceedings was chaired by a Member of Panel of Chairpersons in the absence of the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for three hours and 41 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 21 MPAs (32%) were present at the outset and 10 (15%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of BAP, BNP-M, ANP, PkMAP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Two out of three minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

Output

• The House passed four resolutions moved by private members. The adopted resolutions denounce desecration of Holy Quran in Norway, called for restoration of student unions in the province, recommended decrease in prices of edibles and expansion of NADRA Centre established in district Pishin. As many as 14 lawmakers express their view on these resolutions for 57 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 12 out of 19 starred questions while the lawmakers asked 13 supplementary questions as well.
• The Ministers concerned responded to two Call Attention Notices that highlighted issues related to termination of government sponsored nutrition project and cancellation of tenders under Quetta development package.
• The Chair admitted an Adjournment Motion of PkMAP lawmaker regarding incidents of road accidents on main highways in Quetta for discussion in next sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• Eight lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 33 minutes of the proceedings.
• The Opposition’s protest against the controversial statement of BAP lawmaker during his speech consumed 37 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 23, 2019 (Monday) at 1500 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.

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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