ISLAMABAD, April 23, 2021: The Sindh Assembly on Friday addressed its 60 percent agenda and passed two government bills, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during the third sitting of the 20th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 44 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:15 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker was also present.
• The leader of the house (chief minister) did not attended the proceedings.
• The leader of the opposition attended the entire sitting
• Thirty-Five legislators (21 percent) were present at the outset and 55 (33 percent) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI and PPPP, attended the proceedings while the leaders of GDA, MMAP, TLP and MQMP did not participate in the sitting.
• Six out of nine minority lawmakers were present.

Output                                             

• The House passed two government bills which were the Sindh Regularization of Teachers appointed on Contract Basis (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Sindh Child Protection Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• The chairman Standing Committee on Law & Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights presented two reports on the government bills including the Sindh Regularization of Teachers appointed on Contract Basis (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Sindh Child Protection Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of eight starred questions, the House took up seven related to the Department of Auqaf, Zakat & Ushr. Besides, the lawmakers asked 24 supplementary questions.

• The House took up three calling attention notices (CANs) related to non-payment of salaries to 300 teaching and non-teaching employees of Quaid-e-Awam University Larkana Campus, shortage of water supply in Korangi town, and rape incident in a private hospital of Larkana. These CANs were raised by GDA and MQMP lawmakers.
• The House deferred a CAN due to ministerial absence which was regarding non-implementation on government price list in the markets. Another CAN about provision of recorded lectures to students during COVID phase was not taken up due to the absence of relevant mover.
• The House did not take up an adjournment motion regarding hike in prices of essential medicines due to absence of the relevant mover.
• A privilege motion of a TLP lawmaker was not taken up due to his absence.

Order and Institutionalization

• Two lawmakers spoke on points of order (POs) for ten minutes mainly related to death of a young boy in police custody.
• PTI lawmakers protested for two  minutes against the criticism of PPPP lawmakers on Federal Government.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, April 26, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

 Transparency

• ‘List of Business’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

 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