ISLAMABAD, February 22, 2022: The Balochistan Assembly adopted three resolutions and passed one government bill on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the first sitting of 50th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 04:20 pm against the scheduled time of 03:00 pm.
• The deputy speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of speaker.
• The leaders of the house (chief minister) and the opposition were not present.
• As many as 13 MPAs (20 percent) were present at the outset and six (nine percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP, PNP, PkMAP and PTI attended the proceedings.
• All three minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• Moved by the parliamentary secretary for agriculture, the House passed the Balochistan Fertilizer Control Bill, 2022.
• The House adopted a resolution recommending the federal government to contact international organizations including United Nations for immediate financial and food aid to Afghanistan.
• The House also adopted two other resolutions demanding the provincial government to lift ban on students union and ban sale of toy guns in the province.

Representation and Responsiveness  

• The House took up three out of eight starred questions while lawmakers asked three supplementary questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• Fifteen lawmakers spoke on points of order for an hour and 16 minutes.
• A PTI lawmaker walked out from the House for four minutes against activities of land mafia in his constituency (PB-17 Kachhi-cum-Mastung).
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 03:00 pm.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ 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