ISLAMABAD, September 27, 2018: The Sindh Assembly witnessed uproar as members belonging to Opposition protested against attitude of the Chair and treasury lawmakers, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of proceedings during fifth sitting of the second session:

Members’ Participation

• The Sindh Assembly met for seven hours and 51 minutes; however the proceedings remained suspended for three minutes due to Azan.
• The sitting started at 1022 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for six hours and 41 minutes while the Deputy speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition and the parliamentary leaders have not been notified yet.
• As many as 23 lawmakers (14%) were present at outset and 70 lawmakers (42%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• As many as five out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
• One member applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 20 lawmakers participated in the general discussion on budget statement for the remaining nine months of current financial year 2018-19. The discussion continued for seven hours and four minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised nine points of orders consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.
• The lawmakers belonging to PTI, MQM and GDA staged two walkouts for 11 minutes against the remarks of treasury lawmakers.
• TLP lawmakers walked out of the House at 1514 hours to lodge protest against the issue of blasphemous caricatures. They did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.
• On eight occasions, the lawmakers from PTI, TLP, MQM and GDA protested for a total of 21 minutes during the proceedings against Chair’s attitude and remarks of treasury lawmakers.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on September 28, 2018 (Friday) at 1000 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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This Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation, a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.