Sindh PA: Lack of Quorum Leads to Early Adjournment of Sitting

ISLAMABAD, August 21, 2019: The Sindh Assembly was adjourned on Wednesday due to lack of quorum leaving entire agenda items unaddressed except question hour, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 25th sitting of the fifth session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for 43 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1529 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leaders of the House and Opposition did not attend the proceedings.
  • As many as 34 MPAs (21%) were present at outset and 25 (15%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The Parliamentary Leaders of TLP, MMAP and PPPP attended the proceedings.
  • Three out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

Output.

  • The House did not consider five Calling Attention Notices, a Privilege Motion, an Adjournment Motion and an audit report appearing on list of business due to lack of quorum.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The Minister for Transport and Mass Transit responded to one out of five starred questions. In addition, the lawmakers asked five supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

  • A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1603 hours that led to the ringing of the bells for five minutes and subsequently suspension of the proceedings for another five minutes. However, the quorum was found incomplete on the resumption of proceedings leading to the adjournment. The House will meet again on August 22, 2019 (Thursday) on 1400 hours.
  • ‘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