SLAMABAD, June 18, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan witnessed the presentation of Provincial Annual Budget for the Financial Year 2021-2022 and the Supplementary Budget for the Financial Year 2020-2021 amid opposition’s boycott on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the budget (40th) session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 15 minutes.
• The sitting started at 06:05 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire sitting while the deputy speaker was also present.
• The leader of the House attended the entire proceedings.
• The leader of the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 33 MPAs (51%) were present at the outset and 31 (48%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP, BNP-A, JWP, HDP and BAP attended the proceedings.
• As many as one out of three minority lawmakers was present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Finance Minister presented the Annual Budget for the Financial Year 2021-2022 and the Supplementary Budget for the Financial Year 2020-2021 in the House along with the Finance Bill 2021.

Order and Institutionalization

• The entire opposition boycotted the proceedings and did not attend the sitting.
• The House was later adjourned to meet again on Monday, June 21, 2021 at 04:00 pm.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

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