ISLAMABAD, August 28, 2014: Starting 48 minutes behind schedule, the 5th sitting of the ongoing 13th session of Balochistan Assembly passed the Balochistan Prohibition of Private Money Lending Bill, 2014 on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.
The House witnessed low attendance of MPAs as only 15 (23 %) out of total 65 legislators were present at the outset while 19 (29%) were there at the adjournment.
In addition, two out of five Resolutions appearing on the Orders of the Day were taken up, but deferred. The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting, while his counterpart, the Leader of the Opposition was present during the entire sitting.
Following are some key observations of the proceedings:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Balochistan Assembly met for three hours and two minutes.
- The sitting started at 1648 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours witnessing a delay of 48 minutes.
- The House took two prayer breaks for 61 minutes.
- Fifteen lawmakers (23%) were present at the outset while 19 (29%) were there at the adjournment. A maximum of 23 (35%) were observed to be present at one point during the sitting.
- The Speaker chaired the sitting for 58 minutes while remaining time was presided over by a Member of Panel of Chairperson.
- The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present during entire sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of ANP, PkMAP and JUI-F attended the sitting.
- One minority member attended the sitting.
- Five members applied for leave.
Output
- Introduced by Provincial Minister for Law, the House passed Balochistan Prohibition of Private Money Lending Bill, 2014.
- Two out of five Resolutions appearing on the Orders of the Day were taken up, but deferred. Sponsored by a JUI-F lawmaker, the first Resolution was about giving the status of Tehsil to Toba Kakari. The other resolution was jointly moved by PkMAP and JUI-F lawmakers regarding the establishment Balochistan Constabulary Wing in Zhob.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Question Hour was not held as the relevant minister (health) was not present.
Order and Institutionalization
- Four Points of Order consumed nine minutes of the proceedings’ time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling. Unless the Chair gives a formal ruling on a Point of Order, it does not lead to any assembly output.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Information on legislators’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.
- The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting. However, it was not pointed out by any of the legislators.
The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Balochistan Assembly proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD), a Member organization of FAFEN
