ISLAMABAD, August 06, 2021: The Balochistan Assembly took up its entire agenda on Friday and adopted three resolutions, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 29 minutes.
• The sitting started at 06:25 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and five minutes while the remaining sitting was chaired by a member of panel of presiding officers.
• The deputy speaker was present for an hour and three minutes.
• The leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the sitting for 45 minutes.
• The opposition leader attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 33 MPAs (51percent) were present at the outset and 11(17percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP, BNP-M, PkMAP and BAP attended the proceedings.
• All three minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• The House adopted a resolution to condemn murder of ANP leader Malik Obaidullah after his abduction for ransom from Kachlak area of Balochistan. The resolution was sponsored by ANP lawmakers and fifteen lawmakers participated in debate on it for two hours and five minutes.
• The House adopted two other resolutions demanding to set up zonal headquarter of Balochistan Constabulary at Kharan and declare rain-affected districts in province as calamity-hit areas besides announcement of special compensation packages for land owners and people.

Representation and Responsiveness  

• The House took up all ten starred questions while the lawmakers also asked two supplementary questions.
• A motion to constitute committee of whole for debate on PSDP 2021-22 was rejected.
• Parliamentary Secretary for Quetta Development Authority responded to a calling attention notice regarding fee amount fixed to get NOC for a private housing scheme.

Order and Institutionalization

• Three lawmakers spoke on points of order for 15 minutes related to law and order situation.
• A PkMAP lawmaker walked out from the House for ten minutes, terming the report of police unsatisfactory about kidnapping case of his son.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, August 08, 2021 at 04:00 pm.

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