ISLAMABAD, September 10, 2021: The Sindh Assembly left 50 percent agenda unaddressed on Friday and took up five calling attention notices related to governance and education issues, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the first sitting of 23rd session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 35 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:06 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The deputy speaker presided over the entire proceedings in the absence of speaker.
• The leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The leader of the opposition was present for 32 minutes.
• As many as 35 MPAs (21 percent) were present at the outset and 38 (23 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, MQMP, TLP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Five out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

 Output 

• The House did not consider two bills and as many audit reports.

 Representation and Responsiveness 

• Three out of 16 questions were taken up during the question hour. In addition, the lawmakers asked 18 supplementary questions.
• A privilege motion of PTI lawmaker and an adjournment motion sponsored by an MMAP lawmaker were not taken up.
• Minister for Health gave a statement under Rule 261 regarding cases of dog bite in Sindh. He spoke on the issue for 15 minutes.
• The House took up five calling attention notices (CANs) regarding fees being charged from students by educational institutions during COVID-19 lockdown, illegal constructions, cleanliness of drainages, steps to control crime in Karachi and major sources of water supply to materialize K-IV Project.

 Order and Institutionalization

• PTI lawmakers protested for three minutes during the proceedings against remarks of a PPPP lawmaker against the federal government.
• A PTI lawmaker also protested for three minutes when the chair disallowed him to give extra time for speech on his calling attention notice.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, September 13, 2021 at 02: 00 pm.

 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 excepted