ISLAMABAD, February 14, 2019: The Balochistan Assembly adopted two Private Members’ resolutions and discussed an adjournment motion regarding prevailing law and order situation in the province, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the House proceeding during second sitting of the eighth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 20 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1559 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker was not present.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 22 minutes while a member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leaders of the House and Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 12 MPAs (18%) were present at the outset while 19 (29%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, BNP, ANP and JWP attended the proceeding.
• As many as two out of three minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Tabled by BNP-M lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution recommending the government to establish state of the art libraries for students of the province to promote modern education. Four lawmakers spoke on it for 17 minutes.
• Jointly moved by lawmakers belonging to MMAP and PkMAP, the House adopted another resolution recommending the Federal government to review its decision of ending subsidy on Hajj.
• The House deferred three Private Members’ resolutions appearing on agenda.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up only one out of nine starred questions listed on the questions’ document. The remaining starred questions were deferred due to absence of the Minister for Sports and Culture.
• The Minister for Gwadar Development Authority responded to a Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding establishment of oil refinery in Gawadar.
• Another CAN regarding non-regularization of employees of levy forces remained unaddressed due to absence of the mover.
• The House discussed an Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding murder of Professor Ibrahim alias Arman Loni in Loralai and overall law and order situation in the province. The AM was admitted for discussion after clubbing two identical motions during last sitting. As many as five lawmakers spoke on it for an hour and two minutes.
• Another AM, sponsored by MMAP lawmaker, regarding increase in accidents on Quetta to Karachi road was admitted for discussion in the next sitting.

 Order and Institutionalization

• As many as three lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming six minutes of the proceeding.
• An MMAP lawmaker walked out of the House at 1651 hours against the government for not initiating development schemes in his constituency. He returned to the House after ten minutes.      
• The House was adjourned to meet again on February 16, 2019 (Saturday) at 1500 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of 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.