ISLAMABAD, May 31, 2018: The Balochistan Assembly passed four government bills and two resolutions during its last sitting that ended five minutes after the expiry of the Assembly’s term at 0005 hours on June 1, 2018, observers Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the third and last sitting of the Assembly’s 53^rd session:

Members’ Participation

• The Balochistan Assembly met for six hours and 14minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 27 minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1751 hours against the scheduled time of 1700 hours.
• The Speaker did not attend the sitting in protest against the opposition’s behavior.
• The Chief Minister attended the sitting for an hour and 19 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for two hours.
• As many as 26 (40%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 20 (31%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PML, ANP and MWM were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.

Output

• The House adopted two resolutions recommending the government to recognize the home-based workers in labour laws and allocate Balochistan’s quota in government Hajj scheme in accordance with the provincial population. As many as six lawmakers debated these resolutions for 26 minutes.
• The House passed the Speaker and Deputy Speaker (Salaries, Allowances and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill 2018, Members of Balochistan Assembly (Salaries, Allowances and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill 2018, the Protection of Minorities’ Properties Bill 2018 and the Balochistan Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2018. These bills were passed after suspending the due legislative procedure.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on nine Points of Order consuming 35 minutes of proceedings.
• Five lawmakers belonging to PkMAP and ANP protested for an hour and two minutes during the proceedings over dropping off a bill concerning prohibition of early marriages from the agenda. They ended their protest after the Chief Minister’s assurance to consider the bill. However, the bill did not come under consideration of the House till the end of the sitting.
• A PkMAP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1115 hours that led to the suspension of the proceedings for 27 minutes.
• The Assembly completed its constitutional term of five years at 2400 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• 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.