ISLAMABAD, November 5, 2018: The Provincial Assembly (PA) of Balochistan on Monday unanimously passed a joint resolution urging the government to take counter measures against the drought conditions prevailing across the province, observers Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during last sitting of the fourth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and 11 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1534 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The nominated Leader of the Opposition was present.
• As many as 20 (31%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 28 (43%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of BNP-Awami, BNP-M, PkMAP and MMA were present.
• All three minority lawmakers didn’t attend the proceedings.
• As many as nine members applied for Leave of Absence.

Output

• The House passed a resolution urging the government to take counter measures against the drought conditions prevailing across Balochistan. The issue was highlighted in a Calling Attention Notice by a BNP-M member which was later turned into a joint resolution which was unanimously passed by the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Information Minister responded to a Calling Attention Notice moved by PkMAP member regarding the issues faced by the students of B.Ed and M.Ed classes. As many as seven lawmakers spoke for 13 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as four members raised three points of order (POs) consuming 10 minutes. The POs were related to the answers not given to the questions of the members by the relevant ministries, the issue of vegetable market in Quetta, ignoring of the livestock department by the government and the rate of unemployment in Kharan district.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as three motions under rule 180 were submitted by the members urging the government to establish Women and Minority Caucuses Caucus in Balochistan Assembly, and to select a female member of the Assembly as member of the Syndicate in University of Balochistan. The first and the last motions were passed by the House whereas the second motion was lapsed due to the absence of concerned minority member.

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.