The 22nd Session of the Balochistan Assembly remained heavily focused on the need for greater efforts by the provincial government to stir economic growth in the province through fiscal and non-fiscal measures for creating conductive business environment for investors and traders. Relaxation in levies and easy access to trade routes in the province were some of the recommendations that were floated by Members as the House debated relevant items on its agenda.
The 22nd Session comprised six sittings between November 6 and November 20 when it was prorogued. Marked by low attendance of Members, each sitting started 45 minutes behind the schedule on average and lasted two hours and 19 minutes. The longest sitting on November 14 lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes and the shortest sitting for 1 hour and 55 minutes on November 6, 2015.
The House passed Balochistan Wildlife (Protection Preservation, Conservation and Management) Amendment Act, 2015 that seeks to settle the modalities of transferring 9,000 acres of land to Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO). Introduced during the 2nd sitting by the Provincial Minister for Law, the House passed the bill after two minutes of debate during its 4th sitting.
Two other government bills – the Balochistan Sound System (Regulation) Bill, 2015 and the Balochistan Prohibition of Expressing Matters on Walls (Amendment) Bill, 2015 – were introduced during the 6th sitting and referred to the relevant committees.
Of three Adjournment Motions that appeared on the agenda, only one was admitted by the Acting Speaker for a discussion. Moved by a Member belonging to ANP, the motion on the misuse of Balochistan quota in the federal government was only debated by the House for eight minutes or six percent of the sitting time. The ANP Member was of the view that fake domiciles were being used by individuals for seeking appointments at higher posts in federal government departments.
The House adopted four of a total of 10 resolutions that appeared on the List of the Business without any debate. The four resolution called upon the provincial government:
- To withdraw sales tax on coal business, maximize benefits to farmers through Prime Minister’s Kissan Package, fix price of `Sali Rice’ at Rs. 1,000 per 40 kg, relax the custom duty as well as taxes for local importers and suspend the license of Total Parco Oil Company in case it winds up its operations in the province on the pretext of law and order.
- To ensure gas supply to Harnai district and its adjacent areas.
- To ensure the release of allocated funds in provincial budget for completion of route of Pak China Economic Corridor.
- To revise the import and export policy with Iran.
The House took up only five of a total of 29 questions. As many as 25 starred questions that appeared on the agenda are left unaddressed by the House due to absence of government representatives or their movers.
The participation of lawmakers remained low during the session as 18 of a total of 65 members did not participate in the proceeding. Seventy-five percent of female members submitted agenda items and participated in subsequent debates as compared to 72 percent male members. On average 23 lawmakers were observed to be present at the outset of each sitting and 19 at the end. Three minority members did not participate in the proceeding of the House.
Parliamentary leaders of PML and ANP were present in all sittings followed by leaders of PML-N, MWM and JUI-F in four and PkMAP in three sittings. The Chief Minister (Leader of the House) attended three sittings and was present through 42% of the session while the Leader of the Opposition was present in four sitting and attended 49% of the proceeding.
The Deputy Speaker chaired the 82 percent of the session time while the Panel of Presiding Officers chaired the session in his absence. The seat of Speaker has been vacant after the acceptance of Speaker’s resignation on May 22, 2015. The quorum was pointed out once during the 3rd sitting by female lawmaker belonging to JUI-F that led to the adjournment of the sitting as less than 25% lawmakers were present in the House the bells were rung for five minutes as required under the assembly rules.
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