ISLAMABAD, March 8, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh adopted a resolution to pay tribute to Pakistani women on the occasion of International Women’s Day, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.

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

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 39 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for six minutes due to Azan Break.
• The sitting started at 1645 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and three minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leader of the House and the Leader of the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 65 lawmakers (39%) were present at commencement and 32 lawmakers (19%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, TLP, MQMP, and MMAP attended the sitting.
• As many as six out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
• Six members applied for leave.

Output     

• The House unanimously adopted a resolution to pay tribute to Pakistani women on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Agriculture, Supply and Prices Department responded to all seven Starred Questions while the lawmakers also asked 12 supplementary questions as well.

• The House took up four Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding use of plastic bottles for packaging of different drinks, over-billing by Sui Southern Gas;, development of disaster response system against war threats and poor conditions of roads and parks in District South Karachi.
• Another CAN about shifting machinery of a trauma center in Hyderabad to another Government hospital was not taken up.
• The House did not take up an Adjournment Motion due to the absence of its mover.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as four lawmakers raised Point of Orders consuming 32 minutes of the proceedings.
• The lawmakers belonging to opposition parties (PTI, GDA, MQMP) protested in front of Speaker’s dais for an hour and seven minutes when the Chair did not allow them to speak on points of order related to Chairmanship of Public Accounts Committee. They walked out of proceedings at 1829 hours and did not return to the House till adjournment of sitting.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on March 11, 2019 (Monday) at 1400 hours.

Transparency

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

This Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.