ISLAMABAD, August 12, 2021: The Balochistan Assembly deferred question hour due to ministerial absence and adopted three resolutions on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the fourth sitting of the 42nd session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and one minute.
• The sitting started at 05:43 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and two minutes, deputy speaker for 56 minutes, while the remaining sitting was chaired by a member of panel of presiding officers.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 12 MPAs (18 percent) were present at the outset and nine (14 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of HDP and PkMAP attended the proceedings.
• One out of three minority lawmakers was present.

 Output

• The House adopted three resolution demanding to implement recommendations of Commission formed by Balochistan High Court to probe attack on lawyers in Quetta on August 8, 2016, restore train service from Quetta to other cities, suspended earlier due to coronavirus situation and ensure strict punishment to those involved in rape of eight-year old girl in Quetta. Seven lawmakers participated in debate on these resolutions for an hour and 25 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness  

• The House did not observe question hour due to absence of Minister for local government and rural development authority.
• Parliamentary Secretary for information responded to a calling attention notice (CAN) regarding criteria to award advertisements to local newspapers.
• The Chair deferred two CANs due to absence of relevant minister related to improve electricity infrastructure in the province and non-issuance of appointment orders of secondary school teachers against 1,447 posts.

Order and Institutionalization

• Two lawmakers spoke on points of order for 34 minutes.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

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