ISLAMABAD, April 20, 2018: The Sindh Assembly passed four government bills and adopted one resolution on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during ninth sitting of the 39^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 19 minutes.
•  The sitting started at 1141 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was also present.
• 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 30 (18%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 55 (33%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-F, PML-N, MQM and PTI attended the sitting.
• As many as six minority lawmakers were also present.

Output

• Moved by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed the Sindh Employees Social Security (Amendment) Bill, 2018; the Sindh Employees Old-Age Benefits (Amendment) Bill, 2018; the Sindh Minimum Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Sindh Workers Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
• Tabled by the Leader of the Opposition, the House adopted a resolution to include the book written by an MQM lawmaker Rauf Siddiqui on the life Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) in the syllabus at university level.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up all four Starred Questions during the Question Hour. The lawmakers asked 13 supplementary questions as well.
• A PML-F lawmaker’s Adjournment Motion was rejected which was regarding water crisis in District Badin.
• The House took up three out of five Call Attention Notices which were regarding plantation of Conocarpus, fake employment in Town Committee Kotdiji and shortage of drinking water in Orangi Town Karachi.

 Order and Institutionalization

• A lawmaker raised one Point of Order for four minutes.
• PML-F lawmakers protested in the House for eight minutes against criticism on their party by a PPPP lawmaker.
• MQM lawmaker protested in the House from 1326 hours to 1400 hours against water scarcity in his constituency. He announced to stay in the House till his constituents were provided sufficient water.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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This Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation, a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted