ISLAMABAD, July 24, 2017: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh reconsidered two bills returned by the Governor and passed them again without any amendment, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Monday.

The Speaker administered the oath of membership to the newly-elected PPPP lawmaker from PS-114.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the 35^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The Sindh Assembly met for seven hours and one minute.
• The sitting started at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for five hours and 52 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
•  The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the sitting for six hours and 53 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was present for five hours hour and 46 minutes.
• Fifty-six (34%) members were present at outset while 85 (51%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM and PML-F attended the sitting.
• Seven minority members were present.
• Nine members applied for the leave.

Output

• The House referred the Sindh Accountability Bill, 2017 and the Sindh Forensic Science Agency Bill, 2017 to the relevant standing committees.
• The House passed the the Sindh Removal from Service (Special Powers) (Repeal) Bill, 2017.
• The House reconsidered and passed the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 Sindh Repeal Bill, 2017 and the Sindh New Captive Power Plants Subsidy Bill, 2017. These two bills were returned by the Governor with his message.
• The Speaker announced the assent of the Governor to the Sindh Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Sindh Companies Profits (Workers Participation) (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Sindh Finance Bill, 2017.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up four out of eight starred questions for answers during the sitting . The lawmakers asked 17 supplementary questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• Two Points of Order consumed as many minutes of the proceedings.
• The lawmakers belonging to PML-N staged two protests of five-minute each over not allowing their colleague to speak during the proceedings and alleged unparliamentary remarks of a provincial minister against the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Transparency

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