ISLAMABAD, Feb 06: The fifth sitting of the Balochistan Assembly spanning an hours and 44 minutes witnessed low Members’ attendance. Only 15 were present at the outset and 20 when the sitting was adjourned.

The Quorum, visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting, was not pointed out by any of the MPAs.

Six Points of Order consumed 20 minutes of the sitting time. None of them attracted the Chair’s formal ruling. Unless the Chair gives a formal ruling on a Point of Order, it does not contribute to any assembly output.

The House adopted a Resolution condemning the killing of the family members of an Independent Member (Mir Bakhtiar Khan Domki), and called upon the Prime Minister to visit the province and settle the issue.

The Chief Minster and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting. The parliamentary leader of the JUI (Ideological) 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 44 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1526 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1500 hours. The House proceedings started late by 26 minutes.

• The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were absent. A Member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired the sitting.
• The Chief Minster and the Leader of the Opposition were absent.
• Only the Parliamentary Leader of the JUI (Ideological) was present, while those of Like Minded Group, PML, ANP, BNPA, JUI, NP and PMLN were absent.
• Only 15 Members (21% of total Membership – 65) were present at the start and 20 (31%) when the sitting was adjourned.
• A maximum of 24 (36%) Members were present at any one point of the sitting.
• Three Members applied for leave to be absent from the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Three out of five questions present on the agenda were taken up and responded by the relevant Ministry.
• The House adopted a Resolution condemning the killing of the family members of an Independent Member (Mir Bakhtiar Khan Domki), and called upon the Prime Minister to visit and settle the issue.

Output

• No Bills appeared on the Orders of the Day.
  

Order and Institutionalization

• Six Points of Order consumed 20 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.

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, visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting, was not pointed by any of the Legislators.

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