ISLAMABAD, February 25, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh transacted most of its agenda on list of business amidst protest by opposition parties during 17^th sitting of ongoing 23^rd session on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and 15 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1123 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• Twenty three (14%) lawmakers were present at the start and 56 (34%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 116 minutes while the remaining time was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 41 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for two hours and 23 minutes.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM and PTI were present.
• Four minority members attended the sitting.
• Six members applied for leave.

Output

• Tabled by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House unanimously passed the Sindh Workers’ Compensation Bill, 2015.
• The House deferred consideration of the Karachi Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship Bill, 2015 due to opposition protest.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Three out of five starred questions appearing on the agenda received oral reply from the government. In addition, lawmakers asked 17 supplementary questions.
• Two out of five Calling Attention Notices (CANs) appearing on the list of business were responded to by the relevant departments. The remaining CANs were not taken up due to the absence of movers.
• An Adjournment Motion (AM) jointly moved by MQM members regarding recruitment in education department on contract through Reform Support Unit was rejected by the House after holding discussion for 25 minutes.
• The House rejected a Privilege Motion submitted by MQM member regarding irregularities in funds released by the provincial government in current financial year. The motion consumed 32 minutes of the proceeding.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on 12 Points of Order consuming 15 minutes of the proceeding.
• Members belonging to MQM protested for one minute against the Speaker for not admitting the adjournment motion submitted by Leader of Opposition.
• Opposition parties protested for three minutes against the attitude of Chair for passing unwarranted remarks against MQM member.

Transparency

• “Orders of the Day” was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on legislators’ attendance was available to the observers and the public.

To download this factsheet in Urdu, click here

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 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.