• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, December 11, 2021: The Sindh Assembly passed the amended local government bill amid opposition’s protest on Saturday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the first and last sitting of 25th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 20 minutes.
• The sitting started at 02:30 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy speaker was also present.
• The leader of the House (chief minister) attended the entire sitting.
• The leader of the opposition was present for an hour and 11 minutes.
• As many as 98 MPAs (58 percent) were present at the outset and 102 (61 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, GDA, TLP, MQMP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Eight out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

 Output 

• Moved by the Minister for local government, the House passed the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2021. The leader of the house (chief minister) spoke on the bill for nine minutes after passage of amendments to the local government law which was reconsidered in the House following the governor’s message.
• Introduced by the Minister for parliamentary affairs, the House passed three bills including the Sindh Solid Waste Management Bill, 2021; the Sindh Factories (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Sindh Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• A PTI lawmaker withdrew his privilege motion while an adjournment motion was dropped due to the absence of relevant lawmaker belonging to PPPP.

Order and Institutionalization

• The opposition protested during the proceedings for 18 minutes when the Chair did not allow its lawmakers to speak on the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Later, they walked out from the House for nine minutes on the same issue.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency                                                             

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the media and observers.

This Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted