ISLAMABAD, September 19, 2017: The Balochistan Assembly on Tuesday witnessed presentation of two reports by the government departments on verification of doctors’ degrees and issue of bogus domiciles of Balochistan province, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of the 44^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Balochistan Assembly met for three hours and 14 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1702 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire proceedings.
• The Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition were absent.
• Twenty-two lawmakers (34%) were present at the outset and 17 (26%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML, ANP, PkMAP, MWM and NP were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.
• Seven members applied for leave.

Output

• The Minister for Health presented a report of the Health department on verification of degrees of doctors in the House while a report of Services & General Administration department on issue of bogus domiciles was presented by the Education Minister.
• The House deferred presentation of a report of the Home department due to ministerial absence.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up one Starred Question for answer during the proceedings. A lawmaker asked one supplementary question as well.
• The House took up a Call Attention Notice (CAN) about funds allocation for procurement of medicines for District Headquarters Hospital, Barkhaan while another CAN regarding benefits to government officers posted outside Balochistan was referred to the committee concerned.
• Moved by a NP lawmaker, the House admitted an Adjournment Motion for discussion in next sitting. The motion was regarding illegal possession and leasing of government land by former provincial health minister.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on twelve Points of Order consuming 36 minutes of the proceedings.
• A lawmaker belonging to NP staged a walkout for 56 minutes against the Federal government for importing onion from Afghanistan.

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 proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.