ISLAMABAD, May 15, 2015: The Sindh Assembly adopted a resolution on Friday to condemn the sectarian attack at Safoora Chowk in Karachi that killed nearly 45 people belonging to the Ismaili community earlier this week, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The House deferred the pre-budget debate to discuss the resolution as the session resumed following a gap of two days. The discussion took up 84% of the proceedings’ time in which 29 lawmakers expressed grief over loss of innocent lives in the metropolitan city.

Following are some key observations of the assembly business:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for four hours and 23 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1105 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister was also absent.
• The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for four hours.
• 36 members (21%) were present at the start and 27 (16%) at the end of the sitting.
• A maximum of 61 (36%) lawmakers attended the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-N, PML-F and PTI were present.
• Three out of nine minority members attended the sitting.
• No member applied for leave.

Output

• The House adopted a resolution to express grief over loss of innocent lives in a sectarian attack at Safoora Chowk, Karachi on Wednesday.
• Twenty-nine members (twelve from PPPP, nine from MQM, four belonging to PML-F, three from PML-N and one PTI member) discussed the resolution for three hours and 40 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• Nine points of order consumed 13 minutes of the sitting.
• No protests/boycotts/walkouts were witnessed. 

Transparency

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

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.