ISLAMABAD, October 26, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed five government bills and adopted a resolution condemning publication of blasphemous caricatures in France, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of 28^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 48 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1732 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting while the Leader of Opposition was present in the sitting.
• As many as 21 (32%) MPAs were present at the outset and 20 (31%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of MMAP, PkMAP, HDP, BNP-M, ANP and PTI attended the proceedings.
• Two minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House passed five government bills which were the Balochistan Cadet College Bill, 2020; the Balochistan Encroachment and Banned Institutions (Schools and Seminaries) Bill, 2020; the Balochistan Encroachment and Banned Institutions (Mosques) Bill, 2020; the Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Balochistan Encroachment and Banned Facilities (Hospitals and Dispensaries) Bill, 2020.
• The House adopted a resolution to condemn publication of blasphemous caricatures in France.
• Another resolution condemning the opposition for speeches against state institutions was debated for 40 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up nine out of ten starred questions while one question was deferred.
• Minister for Revenue responded to a Calling Attention Notice regarding illegal allotment of land in Gawadar to an individual.

 Order and Institutionalization

• A PkMAP lawmaker staged walk out from the House for nine minutes against the resolution condemning the opposition for its remarks about state institutions.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on October 29, 2020 (Thursday) at 1600 hours.

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