ISLAMABAD, October 7, 2019: The Sindh Assembly addressed most of its agenda on Monday and adopted a supplementary resolution and a government bill as well, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 12th sitting of the sixth session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for two hours and 40 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours while rest of the sitting was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
- The Leader of the House attended the proceedings for 38 minutes.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 48 minutes.
- As many as 47 MPAs (28%) were present at the outset and 56 (33%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, GDA, MQM and PTI attended the proceedings.
- Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- Moved by the Minister for Local Government, the House passed the Coastal Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019 after presentation of the Standing Committee’s report on it.
- Moved by a PPPP lawmaker, the House adopted a supplementary resolution urging the Federal Government not to use Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) space for Karachi-Peshawar (ML-1) Highways project.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Minister for Local Government Department responded to three out of eight starred questions while the lawmakers asked 21 supplementary questions as well.
- The Ministers responded to four out of five Call Attention Notice (CANs) appearing on agenda. The responded CANs highlighted the issues related to garbage transfer station in midst of a populated area of Karachi, dilapidated condition of dispensaries and hospitals working under local government department in Karachi, poor performance of Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and non-functional Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant at District Taharparkar.
- The Chair rejected an Adjournment Motion (AM) of a PTI lawmaker regarding selling of coal in open market.
- Another AM of same lawmaker about problems of Steel Mill Karachi and its employees was not debated due to shortage of time. It was admitted for discussion during 6thsitting of the same session.
Order and Institutionalization
- An MQM lawmaker staged a protest for two minutes against the controversial remarks by a PPPP lawmaker about his leadership.
- The lawmakers belonging to GDA, MQMP and PTI protested for two minutes against the attitude of the Chair who did not allow them to speak on the resolution.
- Five lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming eight minutes of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on October 8, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1400 hours.
Transparency
- ‘‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- The attendance of lawmakers was 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