ISLAMABAD, May 17, 2018: The Balochistan Assembly held two sittings (second and third) on Thursday, both separated by a period of 17 minutes, amidst absence of treasury lawmakers including the Chief Minister during first of these sittings, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during second and third sittings of the Assembly’s 52^nd session:

 Members’ Participation 

• The second sitting continued for 12 minutes and the third for an hour and 41 minutes.
• The second sitting started at 1630 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours while the third sitting commenced at 1700 hours.
• A member of Panel of Chairpersons belonging to JUI-F presided over both the sittings.
• The Chief Minister was absent during second sitting but attended entire third sitting.
• The Opposition Leader attended the entire second sitting and was present for half an hour during third sitting.
• The second sitting commenced with 25 (38%) lawmakers and adjourned with 17 (26%) lawmakers present in the House while third sitting began with 44 (68%) lawmakers and concluded with 30 (46%) lawmakers present in the House.
• The parliamentary leaders of MWM, JUI-F and PkMAP attended both sittings while the parliamentary leaders of PML and ANP joined them in third sitting.
• Two minority members were present during both sittings.

 Output

• The House approved 19 Demands for Grants during third sitting while no agenda was addressed during second sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• The Leader of the Opposition raised a Point of Order highlighting that the attendance of treasury benches was less than the attendance on opposition benches and suggested the Chair to adjourn the proceedings as otherwise the government would not be able to defend the Demands for Grants against opposition’s cut motions. The Chair adjourned the House to meet again at 1500 on May 18, 2018. However, a number of treasury lawmakers including the Chief Minister arrived in the House within few minutes of the adjournment of the sitting. With considerable number of treasury members present in the House, the Chair announced to commence the third sitting at 1700 hours.
• The Opposition lawmakers staged a protest for 15 minutes followed by a walkout from the proceedings at 1730 hours against being disallowed to raise cut motions on Demands for Grants. They did not return to the House till the adjournment.

Transparency                                

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was not available on the website of the Assembly.
• Attendance of Members was not made public.

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