ISLAMABAD, May 28, 2021: The Sindh Assembly on Friday transacted 90 percent agenda and passed three government bills, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 12 minutes.
• The sitting started at 02:46 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker chaired the sitting for two hours and 37 minutes while a member of panel of chairperson presided over the remaining proceedings.
• The deputy speaker was absent.
• The leader of the House (chief minister) was present for an hour and 13 minutes while the opposition leader did not attend the sitting.
• 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, and MMAP were present while the leaders of MQMP, GDA, and TLP did not attend the sitting.
• Five out of nine minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Minister for parliamentary affairs introduced the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which was passed by the House after suspension of the rules.
• The House also passed two other bills including the Sindh Protection of Journalists and other Media Practitioners Bill, 2021 and the Abdul Majid Bhurgri Institute of Language Engineering Bill, 2019. Earlier, the reports of standing committees were presented in the House on these legislative proposals.
• The Speaker announced the assent of Governor to six bills including the Sindh Letters of Administration and Succession Certificates Bill, 2021; the Sindh Trusts (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Millennium Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship Bill, 2020; the Sindh Public Finance Administration Bill, 2020; the Sindh Child Protection Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The chief minister gave a statement regarding distribution of water among provinces and spoke for 56 minutes. Five other lawmakers – MQMP (two) and one each from GDA, MMAP and PTI – also expressed their views on it for six minutes.

• Out of 23 starred questions, the House took up seven related to the Department of Local Government. Besides, the lawmakers also asked 24 supplementary questions.
• The House took up three calling attention notices (CANs) regarding allocation of COVID budget for Lyari General Hospital, steps for cleanliness of nullahs after monsoon rains and dilapidated condition of roads in SITE Area, Karachi. The CANs were raised by MMAP, MQMP, and PTI lawmakers, respectively.
• Another CAN related to non-payment of salaries to employees of Reverse Osmosis (R.O) filter plants in Sindh was deferred due to absence of the relevant minister.
• The House disposed of an adjournment motion due to the absence of mover. It was regarding adoption of 2017 census results by the Council of Common Interests.

Order and Institutionalization

• Four lawmakers spoke on points of order (POs) for 11 minutes mainly related to the dog bite cases and load shedding in Sindh.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, May 31, 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