ISLAMABAD, May 31, 2021: The Sindh Assembly transacted half of its agenda on Monday amid absence of the leaders of the House and the opposition, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 18 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:05 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker chaired the sitting for an hour and 53 minutes while the deputy speaker presided over the remaining proceedings.
• The leader of the House (chief minister) and the opposition leader did not attend the sitting.
• A newly elected-member of PPPP took oath.
• Twenty-six legislators (15 percent) were present at the outset and 29 (17 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.
• Six out of nine minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House did not consider the report of standing committee on the Sindh Evacuee Trust Properties (Management and Disposal) Bill, 2019.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of six starred questions, the House took up four related to the Department of Industries & Commerce. Besides, the lawmakers also asked 30 supplementary questions.
• The House took up four calling attention notices (CANs) regarding non-payment of salaries to employees of Reverse Osmosis (R.O) filter plants, lack of basic facilities and insufficient staff at Arifabad Dispensary in Karachi West, increasing street crime in Karachi and number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 in province and expenditure incurred on it.
• The House deferred two CANs regarding appointment of sanitary workers in Union Council Kumb of District Khairpur Mir’s and non-reply of members’ question in the House by the Sindh Government.
• The House did not consider an adjournment motion regarding non-procurement of COVID-19 vaccine by the federal government.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday, June 1, 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