ISLAMABAD, March 7, 2017: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan on Tuesday approved two reports of the Committee on Rules of Procedure to add new sections in rules for introducing intervention of Call Attention Notice on the floor and constitute Sub-Committees, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 4^th sitting of Assembly’s 37^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 15 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1620 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister and Opposition Leader were absent.
• Twenty-two lawmakers (34%) were present at the outset and 13 (20%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, ANP, MWM and PML were present during the proceedings.
• Two minority members also attended the sitting.
• Eight members applied for leave.

Output

• Tabled by Minister for Transport, the House referred the Balochistan Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to relevant standing committee for further deliberation.
• A resolution tabled by Advisor to CM on Mines and Minerals was adopted which was about sharing water with Balochistan as per agreed formula. Five lawmakers expressed their view consuming 33 minutes of proceedings.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges presented two reports which were adopted by the House. The first report was about adding new section in rules for introducing CAN on floor of the House while other was regarding power to constitute Sub-Committees.
• The Minister for Education on behalf of Finance Minister presented the second biannually monitoring report of National Finance Commission.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• Moved by Advisor to CM on Law, the House adopted two motions to fill the vacant seats of Standing Committees on Health, Communication and Public Accounts Committee.
• An NP female lawmaker withdrew her adjournment motion after receiving assurance by Minister for Education to resolve issue highlighted through it. Four lawmakers also debated this motion for 22 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on four Points of Order consuming five minutes of the proceedings.
• An NP lawmaker walked out of the House at 1637 hours over non-issuance of funds for his constituency and did not come back till adjournment of the sitting.
• A lawmaker belonging to PkMAP staged walkout for ten minutes over non-availability of medical staff in his constituency.

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.