ISLAMABAD, October 21, 2014: Starting an hour and four minutes behind schedule, the Sindh Assembly witnessed low attendance in the 2nd sitting of 15th session on Tuesday, says the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Forty-seven MPAs were present at the start while 46 were there at the adjournment of the sitting.
The House unanimously adopted a resolution to establish a Provincial Finance Commission for distribution of funds among districts in compliance with National Finance Commission (NFC) Awards. A total of 13 members debated the resolution for 65 minutes.
The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 29 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition remained absent.
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:
Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings
- The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and 23 minutes.
- The sitting witnessed a delay of 64 minutes by starting at 1104 hours against the schedule start time of 1000 hours.
- The Speaker chaired the sitting for 102 minutes while the remaining time, 101 minutes, was presided over by the Deputy Speaker.
- The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 29 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition remained absent.
- The parliamentary leaders of MQM, PML-F and PML-N attended the sitting.
- Forty-seven (28% of the total membership) members were present at the start and 46 (27%) at the end of the sitting while a maximum of 67 members were observed at one point of the sitting.
- Five minority members were present in the sitting.
- One member applied for leave.
Output
- Four bills – two private members’ bills and two government bills — appeared on the List of Business. All, four, bill were introduced and sent to the relevant Standing Committees
- The House unanimously adopted a resolution to establish a Provincial Finance Commission for distribution of funds among districts in compliance with National Finance Commission (NFC) Awards. A total of 13 members debated the resolution for 65 minutes.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Four starred questions (requiring oral as well) appearing on the agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministers. A total of 19 supplementary questions were also asked.
- A PPPP member submitted a privilege motion against the misbehavior of a Project Director in a meeting. The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs asked to mover to give him some extra time to probe the issue.
- A PML-F member moved an adjournment motion to discuss the deaths of people due to consumption of toxic alcohol. Two members spoke on the motion which consumed 14 minutes. However, the Speaker termed the adjournment motion out of order.
Order and Institutionalization
- MQM members staged a protest for nine minutes as the private member bills submitted earlier were pushed back on the list of business by giving priority to the bills presented by the treasury.
- Thirteen points of order consumed 18 minutes of the proceedings’ time.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Information on members’ attendance was available to observers and the public.
The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN.