ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: The Sindh Assembly met for two hours during the sixth sitting of the ongoing session.

Though the attendance of Members was relatively better than the previous sitting, at the start only 16 Members were present. At the sitting’s end, 73 Members were present.

The House debated a Resolution paying tribute to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Out of the 20 questions listed for the Question Hour, only three were put up and responded by relevant ministries. Twenty-five supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

The Parliamentary Leaders of PPPP, MQM, ANP and PML (forward block) attended the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hours.
• The sitting started at 1105 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings started late by 65 minutes.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting. The Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister attended the proceedings for an hour and 35 minutes.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of PPPP, MQM, ANP and PML (forward block) attended the sitting, while leaders of the PMLF, NPP and PML were absent.
• Sixteen (10% of total Membership) were present at the start, while 73 (44%) when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 74 Members (45%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• Four minority Members were present during the sitting.
• Three Members applied for leave to be absent.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of the 20 questions listed for the Question Hour, only three were put up and responded by relevant ministries.
• Twenty-five supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

Output

• The House debated the Resolution paying tribute to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The Resolution was deferred till Monday (January 2, 2012). 

Order and Institutionalization

• Two Points of Order consumed two 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 sixth 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