ISLAMABAD, May 28, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan debated law and order situation in the province and adopted two private members’ resolutions, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of 38th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for four hours and 25 minutes.
• The sitting started at 05:30 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
• The speaker and deputy speaker did not attend the sitting.
• A member of panel of chairpersons presided over the entire sitting.
• The leader of the house (chief minister) was not present.
• The leader of the opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as nine (14 percent) legislators were present at the start and 24 (37 percent) at the end of the sitting.
• Two out of three minority members were present.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP, BNP-M, PkMAP and BNP-A attended the sitting.

Output

• Tabled by the leader of the opposition, the House adopted a resolution demanding the provincial government to hold seminars with the purpose of reforms in society and an end to intolerance. The opposition leader spoke on it for 20 minutes.
• The House adopted another resolution which demanded the provincial government to contact federal government for training, service structure and raise in salaries of personnel of federal levies force. It was tabled by a PkMAP lawmaker while two lawmakers spoke on it for 10 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up all ten starred questions while the lawmakers asked four supplementary questions as well.
• The House took up two calling attention notices (CAN) related to murder of a journalist belonging to Quetta and steps taken by the government to compensate farmers of those areas hit by heavy rain during ongoing month.
• Another CAN on the agenda was deferred due to absence of mover.
• Eight lawmakers debated an adjournment motion for an hour and 30 minutes which was about law and order and bomb blast in Chaman on May 21, 2021. It was sponsored by a PkMAP lawmaker.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, May 31, 2021 at 04:00 pm

Transparency

• ‘List of Business’ 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