ISLAMABAD, April 19, 2022: The Balochistan Assembly transacted 93 percent agenda and passed three government bills on Tuesday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Balochistan Assembly: Members’ Participation

• The House for 43 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:08 pm against the scheduled time of 01:00 pm.
• A member of panel of chairpersons presided over the entire proceedings in the absence of speaker and the deputy speaker.
• The leader of the house (chief minister) attended the sitting for 20 minutes.
• The leader of the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 11 (17 percent) legislators were present at the start and 17 (26 percent) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, BNP-A, HDP and BNP-M attended the sitting.
• Two out of three minority members were present.

 Output

• The House passed two government bills including the Balochistan Forest Bill, 2022 and the Balochistan Charities Registration, Regulation and Facilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2022. Earlier, the reports of standing committees on these legislative proposals were also presented in the House.
• A bill – the Balochistan Universities Bill, 2022 – was passed after reconsideration in the House.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two out of seven starred questions while five questions were disposed of due to absence of relevant lawmakers.
• A calling attention notice on the agenda was deferred.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers spoke on points of order for 23 minutes.
• Lawmakers belonging to MMAP and PkMAP walked out from the House at 03:42 pm for not referring the Balochistan Universities Bill, 2022 to the relevant standing committee. They did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 02:30 pm.

Transparency

• ‘List of Business’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not 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