ISLAMABAD, February 29, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh adopted one resolution and passed one bill amid low attendance of lawmakers during 19^th sitting of the ongoing 23^rd session on Monday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

The House elected one member each to the Standing Committees on Industries, Cooperatives, Excise and Taxation, Primary Health, Labor and Human Rights.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 59 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1105 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• Thirteen (8%) lawmakers were present at the start and 48 (29%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 14 minutes while the remaining time was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Chief Minister and the Opposition Leader were absent.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-F, PML-N and PTI were present.
• Four minority members attended the sitting.
• Three members applied for leave.

Output

• Tabled by two PPPP female lawmakers, the House unanimously adopted a resolution paying rich tributes to Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy over winning Oscar Award for her documentary.
• Introduced by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Bill 2016.  Another bill – the Karachi Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship – was referred to the relevant committee for further deliberations.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Four out of 11 starred questions appearing on the agenda received oral reply from the government. In addition, lawmakers asked 22 supplementary questions.
• Three out of five Calling Attention Notices (CANs) appearing on the list of business were responded to by the relevant departments. The remaining CANs were not taken up due to absence of movers.
• An Adjournment Motion and privilege motion were not considered by the House due to absence of lawmakers.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on three Points of Order consuming five minutes of the proceeding.
• PTI and PPPP lawmakers protested within the House for few seconds over remarks of members of both parties against their leaderships.

Transparency

• “Orders of the Day” was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on legislators’ attendance was available to the observers and the public.

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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