• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, June 27, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan was prorogued sine die after approval of the Finance Bill, 2019-20 and 105 Demands for Grants, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during sixth (last) sitting of the budget (14^th) session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for four hours and 50 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for an hour and 57 minutes due to prayer breaks.
• The sitting started at 1325 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
• The Leader of the House attended the proceedings for two hours and 58 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 25 minutes.
• As many as 35 MPAs (54%) were present at the outset and 29 (45%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JWP, ANP, PkMAP, BAP, MMAP, BNP-A and BNP-M attended the proceedings.
• Two out of three minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

Output

• Moved by the Provincial Minister for Finance,  the House passed the Balochistan Assembly Finance Bill, 2019.
• The House approved 105 Demands for Grants related to various ministries and departments by rejecting all cut motions on them. Ten lawmakers spoke for two hours and 27 minutes on their cut motions.

Order and Institutionalization

• The entire opposition walked out of the proceedings for five minutes against non-consideration of cut motions on a Demand for Grant.
• The Session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Attendance of the 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