ISLAMABAD, January 18, 2012: The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and 20 minutes during the 15th sitting of the ongoing session on Wednesday.

Out of the 15 questions listed for the Question Hour, 11 were put up and responded by relevant ministries. Fifty supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

An Adjournment Motion about alleged corruption by Assistant Mukhtiarkar, Taluka Khairpur Nathan Shah of Dadu District was raised.

Twenty-nine MPAs (17% of total Membership) were present at the start and 60 (36%) when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 73 Members (44%) were present at one point of the sitting.

The Parliamentary Leaders of MQM, ANP and PML (forward block) attended the sitting, while leaders of the PMLF, NPP, 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 1125 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings started late by an hour and 25 minutes.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting.
• The Chief Minister attended the proceedings for 38 minutes.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of MQM, ANP and PML (forward block) attended the sitting, while leaders of the PMLF, NPP, PPPP, and PML were absent.
• Twenty-nine (17% of total Membership) were present at the start and 60 (36%) when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 73 Members (44%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• Five minority Members were present during the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of the 15 questions listed for the Question Hour, 11 were put up and responded by relevant ministries.
• Fifty supplementary questions were asked during the sitting.
• An Adjournment Motion about alleged corruption by Assistant Mukhtiarkar, Taluka Khairpur Nathan Shah of Dadu District was raised.

Output

• The Sindh Service Tribunals (Amendment) Bill, 2011 was unanimously passed by the House, while the Indus University Bill, 2011was deferred.
• Two Standing Committee reports were presented in the House.
• The House adopted two Resolutions. The first was about supporting democracy and democratic setup, and the other one was to pay tribute to Sufi saint, political leader and agricultural reformer Hazrat Sufi Shah Inayatullah Shaheed.

Order and Institutionalization

• Twelve Points of Order consumed 17 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.

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