Sindh Assembly Leaves Private Members’ Agenda Unaddressed

ISLAMABAD, December 17, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh on Tuesday left most of the Private Members’ agenda unaddressed and adopted a supplementary resolution to condemn the destruction of Martyrs’ Monument in Karachi, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are the key observations of the House proceedings during 35th sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for two hours and 25 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1600 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 25 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired rest of the proceedings.
  • The Leader of the House did not attend the proceedings.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for an hour and 48 minutes.
  • As many as 45 MPAs (27%) were present at the outset and 37 (22%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, MQMP, TLP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
  • Six out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

  • Moved by an MQMP lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution to condemn the destruction of Martyrs Monument structure at Jinnah Ground in Karachi. Two lawmakers spoke on it for six minutes.
  • The House did not take up any of the Private Members’ business appearing on agenda. The agenda included two Private Members’ bills, a report of the Standing Committee on a legislative proposal, five Private Resolutions, as many Private Motions and 14 Motions proposing amendments in Assembly’s Rules of Procedure.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up four out of five starred questions appearing on the list while the lawmakers asked 28 supplementary questions as well.
  • An Adjournment Motion appeared on agenda remained unaddressed due to mover’s absence.

Order and Institutionalization

  • Seventeen lawmakers including the Speaker spoke on points of order for 45 minutes.
  • The PTI lawmakers staged a protest for two minutes against the controversial remarks passed by a TLP lawmaker for the Prime Minister.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on December 18, 2019 (Wednesday) at 1400 hours.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • Attendance of the 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