ISLAMABAD, May 2, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh on Monday took up all agenda items appearing on `Orders of the Day’ during 16^th sitting of its ongoing 24^th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hour and 55 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1113 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister and the Deputy Speaker were absent.
• The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for an hour and 31 minutes.
• 23 lawmakers (14%) were present at the start and 47 (29%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-F, PML-N and PTI were present.
• Three minority members were present.
• Five members applied for leave.

Output

• The Speaker announced that the Governor of Sindh had granted his assent to the Sindh Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Sindh Local Government (Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• The House granted extension in presentation time of four standing committee reports on legislative bills till next session.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The government orally responded to five starred questions appearing on the agenda. In addition, lawmakers asked 20 supplementary questions.
• Five Calling Attention Notices (CANs) on governance issues were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministers on floor of the House.
• The House rejected an Adjournment Motion submitted by PTI lawmaker regarding prices of sugarcane in the province. The discussion on the admissibility of the motion consumed 16 minutes of the proceeding.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 15 Points of Order consuming 19 minutes of the proceeding.
• MQM lawmakers staged a token walkout for two minutes against the government for not providing security to their party leaders.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to observers and media.

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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.