ISLAMABAD, January 18, 2017: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh transacted the entire business appearing on Orders of the Day, in the absence of Leader of the House on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the 29^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 15 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1057 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The proceedings were suspended for three minutes due to a prayer break.
• The Speaker was not present as he is performing his duties as acting Governor of Sindh.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and six minutes.
• Thirty-seven lawmakers (22%) were present at the start and 49 (29%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-F, PML-N and PTI were present.
• Four minority members also attended the sitting.
• Three members applied for leave.

Output

• Tabled by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House referred the Sindh Zakat and Ushr (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to relevant standing committee.
• The Deputy Speaker announced Governor’s assent to the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Six Starred Questions were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministers. The lawmakers also asked 16 Supplementary Questions.
• The Chair rejected an Adjournment Motion (AM) sponsored by PML-F lawmaker regarding establishment of new medical college after being opposed by the government. Three lawmakers spoke on the subject for nine minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PML-F female lawmaker staged token protest against attitude of the Chair for not giving more time to speak on her Adjournment Motion.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was not available on website of the Assembly.

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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.