ISLAMABAD, January 17, 2012: The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and 18 minutes during the 14th sitting of the ongoing session on Tuesday.

The House adopted a Resolution paying tribute to the late Pir Pagara and recommended the Sindh Government should make 10^th January a Public holiday.

Out of the nine questions listed for the

Question Hour, only five were put up and responded by relevant ministries.  Thirty-eight supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

The Parliamentary Leaders of MQM, PMLF, NPP, ANP and PML (forward block) attended the sitting, while leaders of the PPPP, and PML were absent.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and 18 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1117 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings started late by an hour and 17 minutes.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister attended the proceedings for an hour and 38 minutes.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of MQM, PMLF, NPP, ANP and PML (forward block) attended the sitting, while leaders of the PPPP, and PML were absent.
• Forty (24% of total Membership) were present at the start and 48 (29%) when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 69 Members (42%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• Five minority Members were present during the sitting.
• Five Members applied for leave to be absent.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of the nine questions listed for the Question Hour, only five were put up and responded by relevant ministries.
• Thirty-eight supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

Output

• The House took up a Resolution paying tribute to late Pir Pagara and recommended that the Government should announce a public holiday on 10th of January. The House debated the Resolution for an hour and 15 minutes.  
• Five Matters of the Public Importance appeared on the Orders of the Day.

Order and Institutionalization

• Eight Points of Order consumed 13 minutes of sitting time. However, none of them attracted formal ruling of the Chair.

• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages during the sitting. However, lack of Quorum was not pointed out by any of the Members of the Sindh Assembly.

After successfully observing proceedings of the National Assembly, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has started the observation of the provincial assemblies – Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – and the Senate.This daily factsheet is based on FAFEN’s direct observation of the 14th sitting of 32nd session of the Sindh Assembly. These reports are released on the day the sittings are held to provide media and other interested stakeholders vital statistics about the Assembly proceedings to encourage informed public discourse on its performance.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN