ISLAMABAD, April 27, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh continued pre-budget discussion and eight lawmakers participated in debate on it, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during the fifth sitting of the 20th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:10 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker was also present.
• The leader of the house (chief minister) and the opposition leader did not attend the proceedings.
• Twenty-three legislators (14 percent) were present at the outset and 31 (18 percent) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI, MQMP, MMAP, TLP, and PPPP attended the proceedings while the leader of GDA did not participate in the sitting.
• Five out of nine minority lawmakers were present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Eight lawmakers – PPPP (4), MQMP (2) and one each of PTI and GDA – participated in pre-budget debate and also spoke on budget execution reports for last two quarters of the year 2020. They consumed an hour and 30 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, April 30, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

 Transparency

• ‘List of Business’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

 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