ISLAMABAD, April 29, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh concluded the pre -budget discussion which continued for fifth consecutive sittings, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 44th sitting of the fourth session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for 10 hours and 14 minutes. However, the proceedings remained suspended for nine minutes due to Azan breaks.
- The sitting started at 1400 hours against the scheduled time of 1300 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for six hours and 25 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
- The Leader of the House attended the sitting for nine hours and 29 minutes
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for nine hours and 55 minutes.
- As many as 29 lawmakers (17%) were present at the commencement and 76 (45%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQMP, MMAP, GDA and TLP attended the sitting.
- As many as seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House concluded the debate on Pre-budget and the Budget Execution Reports for first three quarters of ongoing fiscal year. As many as 14 lawmakers – PPPP (seven), MQMP & GDA (two each) and PTI (three) – participated in the debate consuming nine hours and 50 minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers belonging to MQMP and PTI protested during the proceedings for two minutes against the Chief Minister’s remarks about the division of the province,
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out the lack of quorum twice during the proceedings but the Chair ignored the identification of the quorum on both occasions,
- The House was adjourned to meet again on April 30, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1000 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