Sindh Assembly leaves 95 percent agenda unaddressed

ISLAMABAD, November 16, 2021: The Sindh Assembly left 95 percent agenda unaddressed on private members’ day and adopted a supplementary resolution, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the second sitting of 24th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for two hours and 28 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 10:33 am against the scheduled time of 10:00 am.
  • The deputy speaker presided over the proceedings for 45 minutes while the remaining sitting was chaired by a member of panel of chairpersons.
  • The leader of the House (chief minister) did not attend the sitting.
  • The opposition leader was present for an hour and 30 minutes.
  • As many as 22 MPAs (13 percent) were present at the outset and 63 (38 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, GDA, PTI, TLP, MQMP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
  • Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

 Output 

  • The House left entire legislative business and four resolutions unaddressed.
  • Tabled by a PPPP lawmaker, the House adopted a supplementary resolution recommending the government to legislate for protecting and regularizing the property of people having official documents issued to them by the different government organizations. Ten lawmakers spoke on this resolution for an hour and 12 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness 

  • The House did not consider an adjournment motion and a privilege motion.
  • The House took up two out of four starred questions while lawmakers asked nine supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The entire opposition protested for five minutes during the proceedings when the Chair disallowed its lawmakers to speak on a point of order.
  • Lawmakers belonging to MQMP, GDA and PTI protested for three minutes against passage of supplementary resolution.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, November 19, 2021 at 10:00 am.

 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 Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted