ISLAMABAD, February 15, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan took up entire agenda amid low attendance of lawmakers on Monday during 3rd sitting of its 26th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Some key observations are as follows:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Balochistan Assembly met for two hours and 11 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1134 hours against its scheduled time of 1100 hours.
- Fifteen (22%) lawmakers were present at the start and 17 (25%) at the time of adjournment of sitting.
- A maximum of 25 (37%) members attended the sitting.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The post of Deputy Speaker is lying vacant.
- The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
- Parliamentary leaders of NP, PkMAP and MWM were present.
- One minority member attended the sitting.
- One member applied for leave.
Output
- Minister for Services and & General Administration (S&GAD) introduced the Balochistan Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill 2015. The bill was referred to relevant Standing Committee.
- The House passed the Balochistan Sound System (Regulation) Bill 2015 and the Balochistan Prohibition of Expressing Matters on Walls (Amendment) Bill, 2015 following presentation of Committee Reports on them.
- Tabled by PkMAP lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a joint resolution urging the Federal Government to ensure representation of Balochistan in Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Three members spoke on it for four minutes.
- A joint resolution tabled by PkMAP lawmaker was referred to relevant Standing Committee which was about improper treatment facilities in Children Hospital Quetta. Seven members spoke on it for 20 minutes.
- An ANP lawmaker withdrew his resolution about non-payment of salaries to IT employees of Education Department after assurance by Minister for Education to resolve the issue.
- Tabled by PkMAP lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a resolution regarding distribution of tax revenue to the provinces on equal basis. Earlier same was moved as Adjournment Motion (AM) by the mover and four members spoke on it for 28 minutes.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up two out of four starred questions appearing on the agenda. Two questions were deferred due to absence of relevant Minister.
- An AM about royalty issues of electricity supply from various power plants of the province was withdrawn by the mover.
Order and Institutionalization
- Members spoke on four Points of Order consuming
14 minutes of the proceeding.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Attendance of Members was not made public.
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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Balochistan Assembly proceeding conducted by Center for Peace and Development (CPD) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.
