ISLAMABAD, January 03, 2012: The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 35 minutes, its eighth sitting of the ongoing session.

The sitting was marked by low attendance of Members with only 50 present at the start of the sitting and 55 at the end.

The House adopted four Resolutions. Out of the 10 questions listed for the Question Hour, only three were put up and responded to by relevant ministries. Nineteen supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

The Parliamentary Leaders of PML (forward block), PPPP, MQM, ANP and PMLF attended the sitting.

The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 35 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1120 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings were delayed by 80 minutes.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting. The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister was not present during the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of PML (forward block), PPPP, MQM, ANP and PMLF attended the sitting while leaders of the NPP and PML were absent.
• Fifty Members (30% of the total Membership) were present at the start while 55 (33%) were there when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 57 Members (35%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• Four minority Members were present during the sitting.
• Two Members applied for leave to be absent.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of the 10 questions listed for the Question Hour, only three were put up and responded to by the relevant ministries.
• Nineteen supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

Output

• Four Resolutions were adopted by the House. The House paid tribute to German Scholar, Dr Annemarie Schimmel, for her remarkable contributions to Sindhi Literature. The second Resolution related to action against people who conduct car/motorcycle races on roads/highways. The third was about putting a halt to manufacturing, storing and sale of fake medicines. The last Resolution was regarding introduction of easy system and process for getting pension.

Order and Institutionalization

• Twenty-four Points of Order were raised which consumed 37 minutes (23% of the sitting time). However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

• 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.
• The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages during the sitting. However, lack of Quorum was not pointed out by any Member.
  

  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 eighth 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