ISLAMABAD, October 31, 2013: The Sindh Assembly addressed the entire agenda on the list of business including the passage of the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2013 in the first sitting of the eighth session, on Thursday.

The other two bills on the agenda: the Gorakh Hills Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2013 and the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Bill, 2013 were introduced during the proceedings.

A PTI legislator’s resolution to impose a ban on manufacturing of life threatening kite string was adopted. The House gave extension to a Special Committee to present three of its reports in the next session of the Assembly.

The House adopted a draft to change the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh. A minority MQM lawmaker staged a 61 minutes walkout as the Chair did not gave him permission to speak on a point of order related to desecration of a dead body of a minority.

The Deputy Speaker Chaired the sitting in the absence of the Speaker. The Chief Minister was present for two hours and 12 minutes and the Leader of Opposition for 50 minutes.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 50 minutes. The proceedings observed a three minutes Azan break.
• The sitting started at 1630 hours against the schedule start time of 1500 hours, witnessing a delay of an hour and 30 minutes.
• There were 108 Members at the time of start and 71 when the sitting was adjourned.  At one point, a maximum of 112 Members were present in the sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister attend the sitting for two hours and 12 minutes and the Leader of Opposition was present for 50 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-F, PML-N and PTI attended the sitting.
• Two Members applied for leave.
• Six Minority Members were present.

Output

• The House passed the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2013 in the absence of the PTI, PML-F and PML-N lawmakers. The Chair announced that the Governor has given assent to the Sindh Management Fund House Bill, 2013.
• Minister for Parliamentary Affairs laid before the House two bills. These were the Gorakh Hills Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2013 and the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Bill, 2013.
• The House adopted a PTI legislator’s resolution to impose a ban on manufacturing of deadly kite string to save the lives of innocent people.  
• A draft to change the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh introduced in the last session was adopted by the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Seven of the 10 starred questions on the agenda regarding the Works and Services department were taken up. The relevant Minister gave the answer of all questions. Additionally, Members asked 31 supplementary questions.

• The Chair asked for not pressing an adjournment motion raised on the floor of the House by MQM legislators to discuss the rape of a minor girl in Kotri, Sindh as the matter is already under probe.
• The House gave the extension to the Special Committee to present its three reports. Two of them were on privilege motion and one related to out of court settlement of a dispute in which citizens belonging to Umerkot and Tharparkar were injured by firing of a Navy Commander.

Order and Institutionalization

• Members spoke on 17 points of orders consuming 43 minutes.
• An MQM minority member staged a 61 minutes walkout as the Chair did not give him the permission to speak on a point of order on the desecration of a dead body of a minority.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Legislators’ attendance was available to the observers and the public.  

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN