ISLAMABAD, July 29, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh elected Murad Ali Shah as new Leader of the House on Friday during the first sitting of 26^th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The session was prorogued after the conclusion of its business.

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation

• The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and six minutes.
• The proceeding was suspended for three minutes due to Azaan.
• The sitting started at 1551 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Speaker announced the Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for three hours.
• 113 lawmakers (67%) were present at the start and 114 (67%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-N and PTI were present.
• Six minority members were present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House elected MPA Murad Ali Shah as Leader of the House with 88 out of 91 votes polled for him while the losing candidate Khurram Sher Zaman secured three votes. The MQM lawmakers abstained from voting. The lawmakers belonging to PML-N, except two, also did not poll votes.
• Eight lawmakers made felicitation speeches consuming 76 minutes while the Speaker also congratulated the Leader of the House-elect consuming five minutes of the proceeding.
• The Leader of the House-elect made a statement on floor of the House for 25 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on five Points of Order consuming six minutes of the proceeding.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to observers and media.

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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.