ISLAMABAD, April 21, 2021: The Sindh Assembly was adjourned on Wednesday without taking up any agenda item except question hour due to exchange of harsh words between lawmakers from both sides of aisle, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The House  met for two hours and 25 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:13 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 25 minutes while the deputy speaker presided over the rest of the proceedings.
• The leader of the house (chief minister) was absent.
• The leader of the opposition attended the sitting for an hour.
• Sixty-three legislators (38 percent) were present at the outset and 49 (29 percent) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of TLP, PTI, PPPP, MMAP and MQMP attended the proceedings while the leader of GDA did not participate in the sitting.
• Five out of nine minority lawmakers were present.

Output                                             

• The House adopted a joint resolution condemning the publication of blasphemous caricatures by French magazine Charlie Hebdo in September last year. A PPPP lawmaker spoke on it for two minutes.
• The House did not take up the regular agenda including report of a standing committee on the Sindh Public Finance Administration Bill, 2019, two statutory reports and announcement regarding assent of Governor to two bills.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of six starred questions, the House took up five related to the Department of Health. Besides, the lawmakers asked 30 supplementary questions.
• An MQMP lawmaker withdrew his privilege motion on the assurance of Minister for parliamentary affairs to address his concern. The motion was against Assembly Secretariat for not including his seven private members’ bill on the agenda.
•  The House did not take up an adjournment motion regarding non-availability of anti-corona vaccine.

Order and Institutionalization

• A TLP lawmaker spoke on a point of order (PO) related to the publication of blasphemous caricatures by French magazine Charlie Hebdo. He consumed eight minutes of the proceedings.
• PPPP and PTI lawmakers protested and exchanged harsh words against each other. Their protest disrupted the proceedings for eight minutes and the Chair announced to adjourn the House to meet again on Thursday, April 22, 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