Sindh Assembly Passes Government Bill, Discusses Karachi Issues

ISLAMABAD, November 17, 2017: The Sindh Assembly passed the Sindh Occupational Safety and Health Bill, 2017 on Friday and took up five Calling Attention Notices (CANs) highlighting governance issues in Karachi, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 11th sitting of the 36th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 13 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1152 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Deputy Speaker also attended the sitting.
  • The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the sitting for 44 minutes.
  • The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 52 (31%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 51 (30%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PML-F, PTI and MQM attended the sitting.
  • Five minority members attended the sitting.
  • Two members applied for leave.

Output

  • The House unanimously passed the Sindh Occupational Safety and Health Bill, 2017.

 Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up four out of eight Starred Questions for answers during the proceedings. The lawmakers raised 25 supplementary questions as well.
  • The House did not take up an Adjournment Motion on the agenda due to absence of concerned lawmaker.
  • The House took up five CANs regarding non-functional water filtration plants in Karachi, charging examination fee from school students in Karachi, recruitments in Education Department, faulty water supply line in an area of Karachi and blockage of a street in Block-2 Clifton Karachi.
  • A CAN remained unaddressed due to absence of the relevant lawmaker.
  • The House adopted a motion to elect a member on a vacant seat of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs.

Order and Institutionalization

  • Three lawmakers raised eight Points of order consuming as many minutes of the proceedings.

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 Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation, a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.