• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, July 5, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh passed six government bills and adopted a resolution on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

 Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 21st sitting of the 21st session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and nine minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:31 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker chaired the entire proceedings.
• The deputy speaker was not present.
• The leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The opposition leader was present for 39 minutes.
• As many as 35 MPAs (21 percent) were present at the outset and 18 (11 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQMP, MMAP and TLP were present, while leaders of GDA and PTI did not attend the sitting.
• Six out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

 Output 

• The House passed six government bills including the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Sindh High Density Development Board (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Sindh Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Sindh Shops and Commercial Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Sindh Zakat & Ushr (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Sindh Institute of Music and Performance Art Bill, 2020.
• Minister for parliamentary affairs introduced the Sindh Food Fortification Bill, 2020 which was referred to the relevant committee for further consideration.
• Tabled by a PPPP lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution condemning military coup and dissolution of national and provincial assemblies on July 5, 1977.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• Eight out of seventeen starred questions were taken up during the question hour. In addition, the lawmakers asked 17 supplementary questions.
• The House took up five calling attention notices (CANs) regarding ban on smoke emitting rickshaws in Karachi, provision of group insurance facility to the employees of the province on their retirement, regularize the services of employees and doctors of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Lyari University and illegal construction of buildings in Korangi town Karachi.
• Another CAN on the agenda was deferred due to the absence of relevant minister.
• An adjournment motion regarding gas load shedding for domestic consumers was deferred while other about low GDP of the country got lapsed due to mover’s absence.
• The chair rejected a privilege motion of a PTI lawmaker regarding alleged misbehavior of policemen with him outside the assembly premises.

Order and Institutionalization

• Female Lawmakers belonging to PPPP protested during the proceedings for 15 minutes against the remarks of opposition leader against the women. They also walked out from the House for six 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 Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions excepted