ISLAMABAD, February 25, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh witnessed introduction of two government bills and adopted a supplementary resolution on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of 18^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and seven minutes.
• The sitting started at 1011 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for 26 minutes while the Leader of Opposition attended the proceedings for 43 minutes.
• Forty legislators (24%) were present at the outset and 111 (67%) at the end of the sitting.
• Two newly elected members of the House from PPPP took oath.
• The parliamentary leaders of TLP, MMAP, PTI, MQM-P, GDA and PPPP attended the proceedings.
• Eight out of nine minority lawmakers were present.

Output                                             

• Minister for Parliamentary Affairs introduced the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Sindh Public-Private Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which were referred to the relevant committees for consideration.
• Sponsored by a PPPP lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution demanding the provincial government to suspend anti-encroachment drive on irrigation land and resolve the dispute through negotiations with its occupants.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up four out of 35 starred questions. In addition, the lawmakers asked 14 supplementary questions.
• Sponsored by a PTI lawmaker, the Chair rejected an adjournment motion for discussion in the House which was regarding weak and flawed prosecution system in Sindh.
• A PTI lawmaker withdrew his privilege motion against a government official after the assurance of relevant minister to look into it.

Order and Institutionalization

• The Leader of the Opposition spoke on a point of order for 22 minutes.
• MQM-P lawmakers protested for five minutes on introduction of the Sindh Public-Private Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which was not on the agenda.
• PPPP lawmakers protested for 22 minutes during the speech of the Leader of the Opposition.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on February 25, 2021 (Friday) at 1000 hours.

 Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceeding conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted