ISLAMABAD, February 18, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan adopted three resolutions during last (4^th) sitting of its 26^th session on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 09 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1721 hours against its scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• Fifteen (22%) lawmakers were present at the start and 14 (21%) at the time of adjournment of sitting.
• A maximum of 30 (45%) members attended the sitting.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The post of Deputy Speaker is lying vacant.
• The Chief Minister attended the entire sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition was absent.
• Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP and PML-N were present.
• One minority member attended the sitting.
• Eight members applied for leave.

Output

• Moved by Minister for Education, the House referred the Balochistan Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill 2015 to Special Committee following the concerns of members and Standing Committee report on it.
• The Minister for Home and Tribal Affairs introduced the Balochistan Witness Protection Bill, 2015 which was referred to relevant standing committee.
• A private resolution regarding treatment facilities for women of the province against Breast Cancer was withdrawn by the mover.
• Tabled by PkMAP lawmaker, the House passed a resolution urging the government to contact the federal government on Water supply issue so that the province could get its share according to agreed quota. Four members spoke on it for 13 minutes. Another resolution tabled by same member was also passed by the House which was about payment of royalty to Balochistan province against electricity supply from Uch and Hub power plants to other provinces. It consumed 8 minutes of the sitting time.
• A joint resolution tabled by PkMAP lawmaker was adopted by the House. The resolution was urging the government to ensure payment of outstanding dues of natural resource companies working in the province since 2009. Six members spoke on it for 39 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up four out of nine starred questions appearing on the agenda. Three questions were disposed of and the remaining two were deferred by the House.

Order and Institutionalization

• Members spoke on 13 Points of Order consuming
  21 minutes of the proceeding.

Transparency

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

To download this factsheet, click for English – click for Urdu

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 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.