ISLAMABAD, June 25, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh concluded the general discussion on the annual budget for the year 2019-20 and approved 66 Demands for Grants of different departments while rejecting opposition’s 71 cut motions on them, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during tenth sitting of the 5^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for seven hours and 16 minute; however, the proceedings remained suspended for nine minutes due to Azan Breaks.
• The sitting started at 1220 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for five hours and 12 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired rest of the proceedings.
• The Leader of the House attended the proceedings for seven hours and 11minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for seven hours and two minutes.
• As many as 21 MPAs (13%) were present at the outset and 74 (45%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, TLP, MQMP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Eight out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House adopted a supplementary resolution to condemn alleged torture on journalist by a PTI leader. Four lawmakers spoke on it for eight minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House approved 66 Demands for Grants related to different public departments by rejecting the 71 cut motions on them. A total of three lawmakers (GDA – two & PTI– One), and the Leader of House (Chief Minister) spoke on them for a total of an hour and ten minutes.
• The Chief Minister concluded the general discussion on the budget 2019-20 and spoke for two hours and 16 minutes while the Leader of Opposition spoke for two hours and 57 minutes.
• None of the member debated the charged expenditure.

Order and Institutionalization

• Two lawmakers raised Point of Order consuming seven minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on June 26, 2019 (Wednesday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency                                                              

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.
  

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This Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted