Balochistan Assembly Adopts A Resolution

ISLAMABAD, March 29, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan adopted a resolution amidst low attendance on Tuesday during second sitting of its 27th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

The House also offered prayers and observed one-minute silence for the victims of Lahore blast.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

  • The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 32 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1550 hours against its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • Fifteen (23%) lawmakers were present at the start and eight (12%) at the time of adjournment of sitting.
  • A maximum of 31 (48%) members attended the sitting.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for 50 minutes while a Member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired the rest of the proceeding.
  • The post of Deputy Speaker is lying vacant.
  • The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were absent.
  • Parliamentary leaders of NP, PML, ANP and MWM were present.
  • One minority member attended the sitting.
  • Four members applied for leave.

Output

  • Tabled by the Leader of Opposition, the House debated an Adjournment Motion regarding recently apprehended Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent from Sarawan, Balochistan that was later converted into resolution and unanimously adopted by the House. Eight members spoke on it for 97 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up two out of seven starred questions appearing on the agenda while five questions were dropped due to the absence of movers.

Order and Institutionalization

  • Members spoke on six Points of Order consuming 14 minutes of the proceeding.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
  • Attendance of Members was not made public.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Balochistan Assembly proceeding conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.