ISLAMABAD, November 24, 2020: The Balochistan Assembly did not take up any question related to the Home and Local Government Departments due to the absence of relevant Ministers on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of 29^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 54 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1706 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 20 minutes while rest of the sitting was chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the sitting for 25 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as eight MPAs (12%) were present at the outset and 16 (25%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of BNP-M, MMAP and PkMAP attended the proceedings.
• All three minority lawmakers were absent

Output

• Parliamentary Secretary for Law introduced the former Provincial Administrator Balochistan Continuation of Laws for Tribal Areas Bill, 2020 that was referred to the relevant committee.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Urban Planning and Development presented performance reports of Balochistan Development Authority, Balochistan Coastal Development Authority and Gwadar Development Authority before the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• None of the starred questions (requiring oral answers) were taken up due to the absence of relevant Ministers.
• Two Call Attention Notices (CANs) on the agenda also remained unaddressed due to the absence of relevant Ministers.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion for discussion in the next sitting that was related to the murder of a political worker in Pishin on November 9, 2020.
• A privilege motion of a BAP lawmaker against an official of the Balochistan Education Endowment Fund was referred to the relevant committee.

Order and Institutionalization

• Eight lawmakers spoke on points of order for 49 minutes. These were related to low gas pressure in the province and the regularization of government teachers working on contract basis.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on November 27, 2020 (Friday) at 1600 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of the lawmakers was not available to media and observers.

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