ISLAMABAD, June 8, 2021: The Sindh Assembly rejected seven private members’ bills and did not consider five resolutions on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during the ninth sitting of the 21st session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and eight minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:28 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker was absent.
• The leader of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition leader did not attend the sitting.
• Thirty-six legislators (21 percent) were present at the outset and 38 (23 percent) at the end of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI, PPPP, MQMP, TLP and MMAP were present, while the leader of GDA did not attend the sitting.
• Five out of nine minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House rejected seven motions seeking leave to introduce as many private members’ bills. These bills were the Sindh Differently Able Persons (Employment, Rehabilitation and Welfare) (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the Sindh Child Protection Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the Memon University Bill, 2019, the West Pakistan Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1965 (Sindh Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Sindh Prohibition of Private Money Lending Bill, 2019, the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Sindh Compulsory Marriage Bill, 2021.
• The House also deferred the Sindh Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2019 while  a PTI lawmaker withdrew his motion to introduce the Sindh Prohibition of Methametaphine Bill, 2018.
• The House did not consider four private members’ bills and five private members’ resolutions on the agenda.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of nine starred questions, the House took up four related to the Department of Environment. Besides, the lawmakers also asked 27 supplementary questions.
• The House disposed of an adjournment motion (AM) due to absence of relevant mover. It was regarding the failure of Federal government to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday, June 15, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

Transparency

• ‘List of Business’ 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 proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted