ISLAMABAD, August 9, 2021: The 22nd session of Provincial Assembly of Sindh was prorogued on Monday after transacting most of its agenda, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

 Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the second and last sitting of the 22nd session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 25 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:05 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the proceedings for an hour and 22 minutes, while the remaining sitting was chaired by a member of panel of presiding officers.
• The deputy speaker was not present.
• The leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The leader of the opposition was present for two hours and 15 minutes.
• As many as 16 MPAs (10 percent) were present at the outset and 22 (13 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQMP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Five out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

 Output 

• Minister for parliamentary affairs introduced the Sindh Workers Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Sindh Companies Profits (Worker’s Participation) (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Both bills were referred to the relevant standing committees for deliberation.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• Five out of seven starred questions were taken up during the question hour. In addition, the lawmakers asked 17 supplementary questions.
• A privilege motion of MQMP lawmaker was termed `out of order’ while an adjournment motion of PPPP lawmaker was dropped due to her absence.
• Minister for information gave a statement under Rule 261 regarding notices served by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to lawmakers and workers belonging to PPPP. He spoke on the issue for 11 minutes.
• The House took up five calling attention notices (CANs) regarding cleanliness of drainage nullahs in Karachi, delay in development and water projects in Karachi South, incompletion of a road in Karachi West, deteriorated condition of bridge near Sher Shah Chowk, Karachi and steps for the safe disposal of the used masks. The parliamentary secretaries of the relevant ministries responded to all these notices.

Order and Institutionalization

• Two lawmakers spoke on points of order for three minutes.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

 Transparency                                                             

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