Sindh PA Leaves Most of Private Members’ Agenda Unaddressed

ISLAMABAD, October 8, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh on Tuesday left most of the Private Members’ agenda unaddressed, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 13th sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for two hours and 41 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1530 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 56 minutes while rest of the sitting was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
  • The Leader of the House attended the proceedings for 40 minutes.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for two hours and 35 minutes.
  • As many as 50 MPAs (30%) were present at the outset and 52 (31%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, TLP, MMA and PTI attended the proceedings.
  • Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

  • Moved by PTI lawmaker, the House rejected the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill, 2019.
  • Moved by PTI lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution to take action against those involved in faulty execution of water project in Karachi. As many as seven lawmakers spoke on it for 45 minutes.
  • The House did not consider any of the remaining agenda items which included four private resolutions, two private members’ bills, one report of the standing committee, five private motions and 28 notices to amend the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The Minister for Women Development Department responded to three out of six starred questions while the lawmakers asked 20 supplementary questions as well.
  • The Chair rejected an Adjournment Motion (AM) of a PTI lawmaker regarding price hike of edibles.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The House was adjourned to meet again on October 14, 2019 (Monday) at 1400 hours.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • Attendance of the 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