ISLAMABAD, April 12, 2017: The Sindh Assembly passed a government bill despite it was reverted back to the House by the Provincial Governor, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the 32^nd session:

Members’ Participation

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 31 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1604 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the sitting for an hour and 37 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition remained absent from the proceedings.
• Fifty-one lawmakers (30%) were present at the outset and 60 (36%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM and PTI attended the sitting.
• Three minority members were present.

Output

• The House passed the Sindh Development and Maintenance of Infrastructure Cess Bill, 2017, received back from the Governor. The bill was passed in its original form without any amendment.
• The House unanimously adopted a resolution demanding action against the persons who demolished the historical building of a school in Karachi.
• The Chair announced the Governor’s assent to nine bills passed by the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up five Starred Questions which were responded to by the relevant minister. The lawmakers also asked 14 Supplementary Questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 15 Points of Order consuming an hour and seven minutes of the sitting.
• The House referred a Privilege Motion of a PTI lawmaker to the relevant committee.
• Two MQM and PML-N lawmakers staged a protest for three minutes for not being allowed to raise Points of Order.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• 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 FAFEN partner organization Pakistan Press Foundation. Errors and omissions are excepted.