The 29th Session of the Balochistan Assembly from December 12-28, 2011 saw no more than 25% of the total Members attend any of the sittings. On average, only 12 of the 65 Members attended each sitting.

There were wide time-variations in the duration of the sittings; the longest spanning an hour and 18 minutes and the shortest lasting only 10 minutes. Each sitting, on average, started 44 minutes late.

The participation of Members was also low because 43% of the total Members neither brought any agenda item nor participated in debates.

Twenty five Starred questions were submitted of which 14 were addressed while 11 were not taken up. All questions were submitted by PML. Of the total questions, five each were directed to Balochistan Water and Sanitation Agency (B-WASA) and Balochistan Development Authority; four each to the Ministry of Finance, Public Health Engineering and Secondary Education and three to the Transport Department.

The Assembly adopted one resolution moved by the government on the murder of Hafiz Ahmed Qamar in Karachi.

Sixty-two Points of Order were raised that consumed 93% of the total time. The Like Minded Group raised the highest number of 14 Points of Order, followed by JUI (12), PPPP (9), IND (8), BNPA (6), JUI and PML (5 each), ANP (2) and PMLN (1).

Under the Assembly rules, a Member can raise a Point of Order to point out any violation of the rules and procedure or to seek enforcement of certain rules required to regulate the business of the House. The Chair is required to give a ruling on it.

FAFEN categorized the Points of Order raised in 14 different subjects, of which the highest, 19, were related to the law and order situation. Eight Points of Order were regarding the performance of the communication and health departments while seven were about minority rights.

Moreover, four Points of Order were on democracy, three on energy crisis, two each on conduct of the House, criticism on PMLN, development funds, Frontier Corps and performance of the Punjab Assembly and one each on attendance of Members, Education (Madrassahs) and NATO forces.

The Assembly witnessed two boycotts/protests/walkouts. The National Party protested 20 minutes during the third sitting the murder of Dr Naseer Baloch while the Independent Members and the Like Minded Group walked out of the fourth sitting for three minutes over the judicial killings of Baloch people in the province.

Note: 1FAFEN observers were unable to observe the first sitting of the session

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