The 36th session of the Balochistan Assembly witnessed the dismissal of its Speaker by a majority vote through a no confidence motion amid walkouts by the Leader of the Opposition and other members, while the house passed two treasury backed bills.

The session spanning over 19th till 26th December 2012 consumed three hours and 49 minutes; each sitting lasting, on average 57 minutes and delayed by almost an hour. The Speaker Balochistan Assembly, Aslam  Bhootani, had refused to chair a session on 3rd December 2012, to be summoned by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. The Speaker’s action followed the Supreme Court’s interim order issued on 10 October 2012 which declared that the provincial government had failed to control the law and order situation in the province.

Consequently, a JUIF legislator moved a no confidence motion against the Speaker, during the first sitting of this session, charging the Speaker with committing an unconstitutional act by refusing to chair the above mentioned session.

During the same sitting male and female members of MMA, JUI, BNPA, INDP, Like Minded Group, PPPP and ANP tabled a joint resolution in favor of moving a no confidence motion against the Speaker Balochistan Assembly; the resolution was adopted by the house.

The motion was adopted by a majority vote during the 4th sitting of the session. The sitting was chaired by the Deputy Speaker as the Speaker is not permitted to preside over a sitting of the assembly when a no confidence motion for his own removal is under consideration. The Chief Minister was present throughout the proceedings as 49 MPAs -75% of the total membership voted for the motion. The newly appointed Leader of the Opposition as well as some PPPP and independent MPAs staged a walkout against the no-confidence motion.

The house passed two government bills: The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2012 and the Balochistan Environmental Protection Bill 2012, during the 3rd sitting of the session. Both legislations were respectively introduced during the 1st and 2nd sittings of this session.

Members attendance was comparatively better during the session as 26 members (40% total strength 65) were present at the beginning, 29 (45%) at the end and a maximum 31 members (48%) were sighted at any one time during the session. A single minority member also participated during the session.

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