ISLAMABAD, March 26, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan transacted its entire business appearing on the ‘Orders of the Day’ during first sitting of its 27^th session on Saturday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours.
• The sitting started at 1650 hours against its scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• Nineteen (29%) lawmakers were present at the start and 28 (43%) at the time of adjournment of sitting.
• A maximum of 31 (48%) members attended the sitting.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The post of Deputy Speaker is lying vacant.
• The Chief Minister was absent.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for two hours.

• Parliamentary leaders of JUI-F, ANP, PkMAP and MWM were present.

• One minority member attended the sitting.
• Fourteen members applied for leave.

Output

• Tabled by the Provincial Home Minister, the House unanimously passed the Balochistan Witness Protection Bill, 2015.
• The Chairman, Committee on Home and Tribal Affairs, Prisons, Provincial Disaster Management Authority presented a report on the Balochistan Witness Protection Bill, 2015.
• The Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs presented the second biannually Monitoring Report of National Finance Commission from Jan-Jun 2015 on behalf of the Minister Finance.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Submitted by the Leader of Opposition, the House admitted an Adjournment Motion (AM) for two hour debate in next sitting on March 29. The motion was pertaining to recently held in-service officer of Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) by Security Agencies from Sarawan, Balochistan.

Order and Institutionalization

• Members spoke on six Points of Order consuming 50 minutes of the proceeding.
• The Speaker announced the Panel of Chairpersons comprising Yaasmin Bibi (NP), Manzoor Ahmed Kakar (PkMAP),  Zamrak Khan (ANP) and Syed Muhammad Raza (MWM)

Transparency

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

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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.