ISLAMABAD, June 24, 2019: The Sindh Assembly debated the annual provincial budget for ten hours and 30 minutes on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The House met for 12 hours and one minute; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 12 minutes due to Azan Breaks.
• The sitting started at 1201 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for five hours and 45 minutes, Deputy Speaker for five hours and 18 minutes while a member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired rest of the proceedings.
• The Leader of the House attended the proceedings for seven hours and two minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for ten hours and 36 minutes.
• As many as 21 MPAs (13%) were present at the outset and 74 (45%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, TLP, MQMP, PTI and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Eight out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Nineteen lawmakers – PPPP (8), PTI (5), MQMP (4), GDA and TLP (one each) – participated in the general discussion on provincial budget consuming ten hours and 30 minutes.
• The House did not hold discussion and voting on demand for grants on supplementary budget for the year 2018-19.
• The debate on the charged expenditure was not held.

Order and Institutionalization

• PTI, GDA and PPPP lawmakers protested during the proceedings for a total of seven minutes over not getting equal time to speak on annual budget.
• PTI, MQMP and GDA lawmakers staged a walkout for 25 minutes against the theft of Opposition’s documents from the Assembly premises.
• A lawmaker raised Point of Order consuming three minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on June 25, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1000 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