Sindh Assembly Leaves Entire Agenda Unaddressed

ISLAMABAD, March 5, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh didn’t take up the private members’ business on Tuesday amidst protest by the opposition parties, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daly Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 27th sitting of the fourth session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for 45 minutes; however, the proceedings were suspended for 10 minutes due to the opposition’s protest.
  • The sitting started at 1535 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for 20 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
  • The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 20 minutes.
  • As many as 73 lawmakers (43%) were present at commencement and 86 lawmakers (51%) at adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, MQMP and GDA attended the sitting.
  • As many as seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output                                                                         

  • The House did not take up any of the Private Members’ business including two bills, five resolutions, as many motions and nine notices to amend the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The House did not take up any of the seven Starred Questions scheduled for answers during the sitting.
  • The lawmakers belonging to MQM, PTI and GDA protested during the proceedings for nine minutes against the decision of the Chair to disallow a supplementary resolution.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on March 7, 2019 (Thursday) at 1400 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.