Sindh Assembly Leaves Most of the Agenda Unaddressed

ISLAMABAD, March 12, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh didn’t take up most of the Private Members’ Business on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 31th sitting of the fourth session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for an hour and 48 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for three minutes due to Azan break.
  • The sitting started at 1615 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and six minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
  • The Leader of the House and the Leader of Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 54 lawmakers (32%) were present at commencement and 36 lawmakers (21%) at adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, TLP and MQMP attended the sitting.
  • As many as four out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output                                                                         

  • Moved by a PPPP lawmaker, the Sindh Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution regarding implementation of Form-B of Sindh Educational institutions (Regulation and Control) Rules 2005.
  • The Sindh Assembly did not consider four private resolutions, two private members’ bill, five private motions and 22 motions regarding Amendments in the Rules and Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The Minister for Mines and Minerals answered four out of five starred questions while one question was not taken due to absence of the mover. Ina addition, the lawmaker asked 10 supplementary questions.
  • The House admitted an Adjournment motion (AM) of PPPP lawmaker for debate which was regarding rolling back of the 18th Constitutional Amendment by the federal government.

Order and Institutionalization

  • As many as five lawmaker raised Points of order consuming 22 minutes of the proceedings.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on March 13, 2019 (Wednesday) at 1300 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