ISLAMABAD, January 12, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan adopted two government resolutions concerning the education and infrastructure sectors on Saturday during its single-sitting session, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its daily fact sheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during first and only sitting of sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for three hours and 18 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 24 minutes due to prayers break.
• The sitting started at 1607 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the proceedings for an hour and 11 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 20 members (31%) were present at the start and seven (11%) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JWP, BNP-M, PTI, PkMAP and HDP attended the sitting.
• Only one out of three minority members was present.
• As many as 12 lawmakers applied for the leave of absence.

Output                                             

• Moved by the Minister for Public Health Engineering, the House unanimously adopted two government resolutions recommending the federal government to revive the abandoned Harnai Woolen Mills or establish a university campus on its premises and start the construction work on the already-approved Ziarat-Kuch-Harnai-Sanjwai road besides approving the Kuch-Ziarat-Sanjawi-Loralai road. As many as 12 lawmakers debated the resolution on Harnai Woolen Mills for an hour and one minute while two lawmakers debated the resolution on construction of roads for five minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Food responded to a BNP-M lawmaker’s Zero Hour notice regarding unavailability of basic facilities in provincial schools. Two lawmakers participated in the discussion on the notice consuming an hour and three minutes.
• The House did not address a Zero Hour notice regarding delay in constitution of Health Commission in the province.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as six members spoke on Points of Orders consuming 25 minutes. They discussed the issues concerning law and order and provincial share in National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.
• The House was prorogued sine die on identification of lack of quorum by two lawmakers belonging to BNP-M and MMAP.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was not available on the Assembly’s website.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan’s proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.