ISLAMABAD, March 27, 2017: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh passed two government bills and adopted as many resolutions while the government introduced five new bills as well on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the 31^st session:

Members’ Participation

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hours.
• The sitting started at 1510 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was absent.
• The Chief Minister attended the proceedings for two hours.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 24 minutes.
• Thirty-eight lawmakers (23%) were present at the start and 70 (42%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-F and PTI were present.
• Seven minority members also attended the sitting.
• Two members applied for leave.

Output

• Moved by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs as supplementary agenda, the House passed the Altaf Husain University at Karachi (Amendment) Bill, 2017, and the Altaf Hussain University at Hyderabad (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
• The Senior Minister introduced five government bills which were not include in Order of the Day namely the Sindh Revenue Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Jacobabad Institute of Medical Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Sindh Development and Maintenance of Infrastructure Cess Bill, 2017, the Sindh Coal Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Sindh Shaheed Recognition and Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
• The Speaker informed the House about the Governor’s assent to seven bills passed by the Assembly.
• Tabled by Minister for Health, the House adopted two resolutions urging the government to use diplomatic channels for the release of kidnapped Pakistani engineer in South Sodan and address the issue of shortage of water in the province.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Four out of seven Starred Questions were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministers. The lawmakers asked 24 Supplementary Questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• A lawmaker spoke on a Point of Order, consuming two minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was not available on website of the Assembly.

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceedings, conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.