ISLAMABAD, November 17, 2015: The Balochistan Assembly spent more than two hours on Points of Order during the fifth sitting of its 22^nd Session, says Free and Fair Election Network in its daily factsheet.

The rest of the proceeding was consumed by debate on two resolutions that the House adopted. The first resolution sought relaxation in the custom duty as well as taxes for local importers and the second urged the government to suspend the license of an oil company in case it ends its operations in the province on the pretext of law and order.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 34 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1640 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hour.
• Twenty (31%) lawmakers were present at the start and 7 (11%) at the end of the sitting.
• A maximum of 22 (34%) members attended the sitting.
• A member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker, Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition were absent.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML, ANP and MWM attended the sitting.
• One minority member attended the sitting.
• Five members applied for leave.

Outputs

• The House adopted two joint resolutions tabled by PkMAP lawmakers. The first resolution sought relaxation in the custom duty as well as taxes for local importers and the second urged the government to suspend the license of an oil company in case it ends its operations in the province on the pretext of law and order.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Question Hour was not held due to the absence of movers who raised five questions. Two questions were deferred due to non-submission of reply by relevant departments.

Order and Institutionalization

• Twenty five Points of Order consumed 88% (135 minutes) of the sitting.

Transparency

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

To download the factsheet, Click here

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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.