ISLAMABAD, June 21, 2021: The Sindh Assembly continued general discussion on provincial budget 2021-22 and 21 lawmakers took part in the debate, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) its Daily Factsheet on Monday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 13th sitting of the 21st session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for four hours and 26 minutes.
- The sitting started at 01:00 pm against the scheduled time of 11:00 am.
- The speaker chaired the proceedings for three hours and two minutes while the deputy speaker presided over the rest of the sitting.
- The leader of the House (Chief Minister) was absent.
- The opposition leader attended the proceedings for two hours and six minutes.
- As many as 23 MPAs (14 percent) were present at the outset and 26 (16 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, MQMP, GDA, and MMAP were present, while the leader of TLP did not attend the sitting.
- Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Twenty-one lawmakers – PPPP (11), PTI (6) and GDA (4) – participated in general discussion on budget for the financial year 2021-22 as well as supplementary budget for the financial year 2020-21. They consumed four hours and 10 minutes of the proceedings.
Order and Institutionalization
- Lawmakers belonging to GDA, MQM and PTI protested for seven minutes when the Chair did not give extra time to a GDA lawmaker to continue her budget speech. Later, GDA lawmakers walked out from the House on the same issue for 40 minutes.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 at 12:00 pm.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the media and observers.
This Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted