Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, May 5, 2014: The 12^th session of the Sindh Assembly was prorogued on Monday after achieving the benchmark of completing 100 sittings during the ongoing parliamentary year, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

The House held post budget (2013-14) review discussion which was concluded by the Chief Minister, who congratulated the lawmakers for showing good performance and achieving the set targets.

A total of 14 members – PPPP 4, MQM, PTI (3 each), PML-N, PML-F (two each) – took part in the debate that continued for three hours and fifty minutes. The discussion was held on “receipts of the province, 2013-14”, “current revenue expenditure, 2013-14”, “current capital expenditure, 2013-14” and “development expenditure, 2013-14”.

The House adopted a resolution to urge the federal government to ban illegal and unregistered SIMs throughout the country, which is becoming a major cause in terrorism related incidents.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for four hours and 45 minutes, taking three-minute break.
• The sitting started at 1030 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours, witnessing a delay of 30 minutes.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting for four hours and 25 minutes while a PPPP lawmaker presided over the remaining proceedings in the absence of Speaker and members of panel of chairpersons.
• The Chief Minister attended the sitting for two hours and 40 minutes while the slot for Leader of the Opposition is yet to be notified.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PPPP, PTI and MQM attended the sitting.
• Twenty-one members were present at the outset, 86 at the adjournment, while a maximum of 88 lawmakers were observed to be present at one point during the sitting.
• Six minority members attended the sitting.
• Four members applied for leave. The leave application of PML-N lawmaker Arbab Ghulam Rahim was rejected by the Chair who gave the ruling to submit copy of passport as the applicant requested for leave due to his travel abroad.

Output

• Tabled by PTI female lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution urging the federal government to ban illegal and unregistered SIMs throughout the country which are causing major terrorism related incidents.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Sindh Assembly held post budget review discussion for three hours and 50 minutes. The discussion was held on “receipts of the province, 2013-14”, “current revenue expenditure, 2013-14”, “current capital expenditure, 2013-14” and “development expenditure, 2013-14”.
• A total of 14 members – PPPP 4, MQM, PTI (3 each), PML-N, PML-F (two each) – took part in the debate that continued for three hours and fifty minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised three points of order consuming seven minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was available to observers and the public.

 

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