ISLAMABAD, January 23, 2020: The seventh session of Sindh Assembly was prorogued sine die after addressing most of the agenda on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are the key observations of the House proceedings during third and last sitting of the seventh session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 15 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for three minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1435 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and 25 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 50 MPAs (30%) were present at the outset and 35 (21%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, MMAP and TLP attended the proceedings.
• Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House reconsidered and passed the Establishment of the Office of the Ombudsman for the Province of Sindh (Amendment) Bill, 2020 after Governor’s message on it.
• Moved by PPPP lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution to pay tributes to deceased politician Syed Mardan Ali Shah. As many as 17 lawmakers debated the resolution for an hour and two minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Labour and Human Resources Department responded to four starred questions while the lawmakers asked 23 supplementary questions as well.
• The Chief Minister and Minister for Health responded to three out of five Call Attention Notices (CANs) appearing on agenda. The responded notice highlighted the issue of shortage of wheat, payment of salaries to workers of Engineering department and report of Police Department against members of Provincial Cabinet.
• The House did not consider two other CANs appearing on the agenda.
• An Adjournment Motion seeking discussion on the revised rate of taxes remained unaddressed due to the mover’s absence.
• The Ministers for Information and Energy spoke on points of personal explanation for twenty minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1724 hours which was found complete after headcount on Chair’s directions.
• A GDA lawmaker protested for one minute for not including her Adjournment Motion on the list of business.
• The lawmakers belonging to PTI, MQMP and GDA walked out of the proceedings at 1524 hours against the reconsideration of the Establishment of the Office of the Ombudsman for the Province of Sindh (Amendment) Bill, 2020. They did not return to the House until adjournment of the sitting at 1750 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.

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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