ISLAMABAD, August 15, 2015: The Balochistan Assembly witnessed adoption of two resolutions and introduction of four bills during the fourth sitting of its 20th session on Saturday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

The sitting started 90 minutes behind the schedule with 22 lawmakers (34%) present at the start and 9 (14%) at the time of adjournment. The House adopted two resolutions to introduce proper promotion criteria for provincial police officers and resolving the issue of withholding tax through meaningful dialogue with the traders.

Adviser to Chief Minister on Education introduced four bills including the Balochistan Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Bill 2015, the Balochistan Thalassemia Prevention and Protection Bill 2015, the Balochistan Industrial Relations Bill 2015 and the Balochistan Boiler and Pressure Vessels Bill 2015.

Following are some key observations of the assembly proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for an hour and 55 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1730 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• Twenty-two lawmakers (34%) were present at the start and nine (14%) at the end of the sitting.
• A maximum of 32 (49%) members attended the sitting.
• The entire sitting was chaired by Deputy Speaker.
• The Chief Minister attended the entire sitting while the Opposition Leader was not present.
• Only the parliamentary leader of PkMAP attended the sitting.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.
• Five members applied for leave.

Output

• The House adopted two resolutions to introduce proper promotion criteria for provincial police officers and resolving the issue of withholding tax through meaningful dialogue with the traders.
• Advisor to Chief Minister on Education introduced four bills including the Balochistan Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Bill 2015, the Balochistan Thalassemia Prevention and Protection Bill 2015, the Balochistan Industrial Relations Bill 2015 and the Balochistan Boiler and Pressure Vessels Bill 2015.
• The House also witnessed presentation of the Balochistan Annual expenditure and Audit Reports 2014-15, the Balochistan Public Service Commission Report 2013 and Finance Committee Report 2014-15.

Representation and Responsiveness

• An Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding non-serious attitude of government in negotiations with traders on the issue of withholding tax was debated by the House for 18 minutes. Three lawmakers from PkMAP and one from JUI-F participated in debate on this AM which was converted into resolution urging the government to resolve the issue through meaningful dialogue.

Order and Institutionalization

• Four points of order consumed 15 minutes of the sitting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on legislators’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.

To download the factsheet, click here

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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.