ISLAMABAD, January 13, 2012: The Sindh Assembly met for 25 minutes, its 12th sitting of the ongoing session.

There were a total of 47 Members present at the start of the sitting and 69 at the end.

The sitting was adjourned until Monday after fathea was offered for the Pir Pagara Syed Shah Mardan Shah-II.

Only the Parliamentary Leaders of the MQM and PMLQ (F-B) were present, while those of PPPP, PMLF, NPP, PMLQ and ANP did not attend.

The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for 25 minutes
• The sitting started at 1100 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings were delayed by an hour.
• The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were not present.
• The Chief Minister was not present.
• Only the Parliamentary Leaders of the MQM and PMLQ (F-B) were present, while those of PPPP, PMLF, NPP, PMLQ and ANP did not attend.
• Forty-seven Members (28% of the total Membership) were present at the start while 69 (42%) were there when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 69 Members (42%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• There were five minority Members present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Nine questions were on the Agenda but none was taken up.

Output

• The Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Dewan University Bill 2011 was not taken up.

Order and Institutionalization

• Only one Point of Order was raised that consumed two minutes..
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

After successfully observing the proceedings of the National Assembly, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has started the observation of the provincial assemblies – Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – and the Senate.This daily factsheet is based on FAFEN’s direct observation of the 12th sitting of the 32nd session of the Sindh Assembly. These reports are released on the day the sittings are held to provide media and other interested stakeholders vital statistics about the Assembly proceedings to encourage informed public discourse on its performance.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN