ISLAMABAD, January 13, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh transacted its entire agenda and referred a government bill to the Standing Committee on Technical Education for deliberation, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during sixth sitting of 17^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for three hours and 34 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1510 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the proceedings for two hours and 20 minutes while a Member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired the remaining sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was absent.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Twenty-six legislators (16%) were present at the outset and 28 (17%) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of TLP, MMAP and PPPP attended the proceedings.
• Six out of nine minority lawmakers were present.

Output                                             

• Minister for Parliamentary Affairs introduced the Millennium Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship, 2020 which was referred to the Standing Committee on Technical Education.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up seven out of eight starred questions. In addition, the lawmakers asked 23 supplementary questions.
• The House took up six Calling Attention Notices (CANs) which were related to issuance of fake domiciles, unavailability of pedestrian bridges in District Korangi, incomplete construction of the District Head Quarter Hospital Dadu, payment of Group Insurance to the retired employees of Sindh, arrest of rapist in District Khairpur and dilapidated roads of Karachi SITE area.
• The Chair did not admit an adjournment motion of PTI lawmaker for discussion which was regarding lack of emergency rescue service in the province.
• The House held general discussion on an adjournment motion about conduct of MDCAT test by Pakistan Medical Commission from Federal Syllabus. As many as 12 lawmakers – PPPP (5), PTI, MQMP, GDA (two each) and TLP (one) –participated in debate consuming an hour and 20 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as two lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for three minutes.
• PTI lawmakers protested for three minutes during the proceedings against remarks of a PPPP lawmaker about the Federal Government.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 14, 2021 (Thursday) at 1500 hours.

 Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ 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 proceeding conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted