ISLAMABAD, June 11, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh witnessed the presentation of provincial budget for financial year 2016-17 on Saturday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
The budget speech by the Finance Minister consumed 118 minutes (66%) of proceeding time.
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Sindh Assembly met for two hour and 58 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1158 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was absent.
- The Chief Minister attended the sitting.
- The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for two hour and 46 minutes.
- The Provincial Minister for Finance was present in entire sitting.
- 124 lawmakers (77%) were present at the start and 107 (66%) at the end of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary Leaders of PML-F, PML-N, NPP and PTI were present.
- Six minority members were present.
- One member applied for leave.
Output
- The Senior Minister for Finance presented the Sindh Finance Bill 2016 along with the annual budget statement for the fiscal year 2016-2017 and the supplementary budget statement for the year 2015-2016.
Order and Institutionalization
- A lawmaker belonging to MQM staged protest for five minutes against the attitude of the Speaker for not allowing him to speaker during the speech of Finance Minister.
- The Speaker announced the Panel of Chairmen comprising Syed Murad Ali Shah (PPPP),
Khursheed Ahmed Junejo (PPPP), Sardar Ahmed (MQM), and Mehtab Akbar Rashdi (PML-F). - Two members – Abdul Sattar Rajpur (PPPP) and Arjun Das (MQM) – took the oath as member Assembly.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- The attendance of lawmakers was available to 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.