ISLAMABAD, March 24, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan on Wednesday transacted most of its agenda and passed a government bill, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of 35^th session:

Members’ Participation 

• The House met for an hour and 54 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1725 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 15 MPAs (23%) were present at the outset and 19 (29%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of HDP, PKMAP and BNP-M attended the proceeding.
• One out of three minority lawmakers was present.

Output

• Moved by a BAP lawmaker, the House passed the Balochistan Services Tribunal (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• Another government bill – the Balochistan Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2021 – was referred to the relevant standing committee for deliberation.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up seven out of ten starred questions related to Ministries of Agriculture, Forest and Mines while three questions were deferred due to absence of movers. In addition, the lawmakers asked two supplementary questions.
• Minister for Industries and Production responded to  a Call Attention Notice regarding non-payment of compensation amount to the affectees of Bostan Industrial Zone.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on March 26, 2021 (Friday) at 1600 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of the lawmakers was not available to media and observers.

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.