Sindh Assembly Transacts Entire Business amid Low Attendance of MPs

ISLAMABAD, November 28, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh transacted the entire business appearing on ‘Orders of the Day’ amid low attendance of lawmakers and was later prorogued sine die on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during last (9th) sitting of the 28th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The Sindh Assembly met for an hour and 28 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1058 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Deputy Speaker was absent.
  • The Chief Minister attended the proceedings for 56 minutes.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 22 minutes.
  • Twenty lawmakers (12%) were present at start and 68 (40%) at adjournment of the sitting.
  • The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-N and PTI were present.
  • Three minority members also attended the sitting.
  • Thirteen members applied for leave.

Output

  • The House deferred consideration of the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law, Karachi (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Six out of eight Starred Questions were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministers. The lawmakers also asked 19 Supplementary Questions.
  • The Speaker rejected the Adjournment Motion (AM) of a PTI lawmaker regarding non availability of funds for Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). Two lawmakers spoke on the subject for nine minutes.
  • The House took up five Call Attention Notices (CANs) on various issues of public importance.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The lawmakers spoke on four Points of Order consuming 16 minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

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

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.