ISLAMABAD, April 3, 2017: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan transacted entire business appearing on List of Business in absence of Leader of the House on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of Assembly’s 38^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Balochistan Assembly met for three hours and two minutes.
• The sitting started at 1622 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• 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.
• Twenty-five lawmakers (38%) were present at the outset and 14 (22%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of JUI-F, PML, PkMAP, ANP and MWM were present during the proceedings.
• Two minority members also attended the sitting.
• Thirteen members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Five Starred Questions were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministers. The lawmakers also asked two Supplementary Questions.
• Moved by Advisor to CM on Law, the House adopted a motion to fill the vacant seat of Standing Committees on Finance, Excise & Taxation, Board of Revenue and Transport Departments.
• The House admitted two Adjournment Motions (AMs) for two-hour discussion in next sitting. The motions were about the safety of Pashtun and Baloch students after a clash between student groups in the Punjab University, Lahore. Three lawmakers took part in the discussion consuming 29 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 26 Points of Order consuming an hour and 14 minutes of the proceedings.

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.