Sindh Assembly continues debate on provincial budget

ISLAMABAD, June 19, 2021: The Sindh Assembly continued general discussion on provincial budget 2021-22 and 18 lawmakers took part in the debate, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) its Daily Factsheet on Saturday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 12th sitting of the 21st session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for four hours and 24 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 01:16 pm against the scheduled time of 12:00 pm.
  • The speaker chaired the proceedings for three hour and 17 minutes while the deputy speaker presided over the rest of the sitting.
  • The leader of the House (Chief Minister) was absent.
  • The opposition leader attended the proceedings for an hour and one minute.
  • As many as 31 MPAs (19 percent) were present at the outset and 20 (12 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, MQMP, GDA, and TLP were present while the leader of MMAP did not attend the sitting.
  • Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Eighteen lawmakers – PPPP (10), PTI (5) and GDA (3) – participated in general discussion on budget for the financial year 2021-22 as well as supplementary budget for the financial year 2020-21. They consumed three hours and 52 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

  • A GDA lawmaker and PTI lawmakers protested for two and four minutes respectively against the remarks of PPPP legislators about them. PTI and PPPP lawmakers came close to blows during the protest.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, June 21, 2021 at 11:00 am.

Transparency                                                              

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • The attendance of lawmakers was not 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