Sindh Assembly Approves 159 Demands for Grants

ISLAMABAD, June 26, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh approved 159 Demands for Grants while rejecting opposition’s 543 cut motions on them, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 11th sitting of the 5th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for three hours and ten minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1335 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 55 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired rest of the proceedings.
  • The Leaders of the House and the Opposition attended the entire proceedings.
  • As many as 53 MPAs (32%) were present at the outset and 56 (40%) 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 Chief Minister laid the Schedule of Authorized Supplementary Expenditure for the Financial Year 2018-19.
  • The House did not take up remaining agenda items including the Sindh Finance Bill, 2019 and the Schedule of Authorized Expenditure for the Year 2019-20.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Moved by the Chief Minister, the House approved 159 Demands for Grants by rejecting the opposition’s 543 cut motions on them. As many as 18 lawmakers – MQMP (nine), PTI and GDA (four each), and PPPP (one) – spoke for two hours and 39 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

  • One lawmaker raised a Point of Order consuming two minutes of the proceedings.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on June 27, 2019 (Thursday) 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.

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