Opposition Protests in Sindh Assembly over PAC Chairmanship Issue

ISLAMABAD, March 7, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh did not take up public importance agenda amidst protest by the opposition parties on the issue of Public Accounts Committee’s chairmanship, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daly Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 28^th sitting of the fourth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 13 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1545 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 53 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 58 minutes.
• As many as 62 lawmakers (37%) were present at commencement and 104 lawmakers (62%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, TLP, MQMP, MMAP and GDA attended the sitting.
• As many as eight out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
• The House approved the leaves of absence of two lawmakers.

Output                                                                         

• The Chair announced the Governor’s assent to the Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Bill, 2018.
• The House granted two weeks’ extension to the Select Committee for presentation of its report on the Sindh Prisoner and Correctional Facilities Bill, 2019.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Cooperatives responded to four Starred Questions. The lawmakers also asked two supplementary questions.

• The House didn’t take up any Calling Attention Notices (CANs) during the sitting.
• The House didn’t take up an Adjournment Motion of PTI lawmaker seeking discussion on the failure of the provincial government to announce Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award.
• The Chair referred a MMAP lawmaker’s Question of Privilege regarding derogatory remarks by the Leader of Opposition to a Select Committee.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as two lawmakers raised Point of Orders consuming 18 minutes of the proceedings.
• The lawmakers belonging to opposition protested during the proceedings against depriving the opposition of the Public Account Committee’s (PAC) chairmanship. The protest continued for 57 minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on March 8, 2019 (Friday) at 1500 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.

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.

Related posts