ISLAMABAD, March 30: The sixth sitting of Balochistan Assembly’s 31st session, starting 25 minutes behind schedule, met for an hour and 10 minutes on Friday.

The sitting witnessed low attendance as 15 Members were present at the start and only nine were there when it was adjourned.

Despite low attendance, the House passed the Gwadar Industrial Estate Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2012. Only nine legislators were present during the passage of the Bill.

The House also adopted a Resolution calling for reducing fares of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights to Balochistan.

The Quorum was visible lacking at various stages of the sitting. However, none of the MPAs pointed it out.

Five Points of Order consumed 30 minutes of the sitting time. None of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling. Unless the chair gives a formal ruling on a Point of Order, it does not lead to any assembly output.

The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 35 minutes.

The parliamentary leaders of BNPA, PML and NP attended the proceedings.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Balochistan Assembly met for an hour and 10 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1625 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1600 hours. The House proceedings started late by 25 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the sitting.
• The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 35 minutes.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of the BNPA, NP and PML were present, while those of Like Minded Group, JUI (Ideological), ANP, JUI and PMLN were absent.
• Fifteen Members (23% of total Membership – 65) were present at the start and nine (14%) when the sitting was adjourned.
• Two minority Members were present.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The Question Hour was not held.

Output

• The Gwadar Industrial Estate Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2012 was passed          by the House. Only nine Members were present during the passage of the Bill.
• The House adopted a Resolution demanding the reduction in fares of flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to Balochistan.

Order and Institutionalization

• Five Points of Order consumed 30 minutes of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting. However, it was not pointed out by any of the MPAs.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Balochistan Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development (CPD), a member organization of FAFEN