ISLAMABAD, May 24, 2018: The Sindh Assembly on Thursday passed eight government bills and deferred five other legislative proposals, reports Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 11th sitting of the 40th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and 53 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1409 hours against the scheduled time of 1300 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 38 minutes while the rest of the proceedings were chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
- The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) attended the entire sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition was present for three hours and 12 minutes.
- As many as 41 (25%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 53 (32%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PPPP PTI and PML-F attended the sitting.
- Seven minority lawmakers were also present.
Output
- Tabled by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed the Sindh Coastal Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2018; the Government College University Hyderabad (Amendment) Bill, 2018; the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Human Resource Research and Development Board (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Ziauddin University Examination Board Bill, 2018.
- Four other bills returned by the governor for reconsideration were also passed by the House. These bills were the Begum Nusrat Bhutto Women University Sukkur Bill, 2018; the Shaikh Ayaz University Shikarpur Bill, 2018; the Sindh (Regularization of Contract Employees of Khairpur Medical College Khairpur) Bill, 2018 and the Sindh Empowerment of ‘Persons with Disabilities’ Bill, 2018. Rule 117 (5) of the Sindh Assembly’s Rules of Procedure, 2013 says “When the Governor has returned a Bill to the Provincial Assembly, it shall be reconsidered by the Provincial Assembly and, if it is again passed, with or without amendment, by the Provincial Assembly, by the votes of the majority of the members of the Provincial Assembly present and voting, it shall be again presented to the Governor and the Governor shall give his assent within ten days, failing which such assent shall be deemed to have been given”.
- Five other bills deferred by the House were the Societies Registration (Sindh Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Sindh Workers Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Sindh Employees Social Security (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Sindh Institute of Traumatology Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Bill, 2017.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up all four Starred Questions for answers during the proceedings. In addition, lawmakers asked 17 supplementary questions.
- All five Call Attention Notices on the agenda remained unaddressed.
- Moved by a PTI lawmaker, the Chair admitted an adjournment motion for debate in next sitting which was regarding load-shedding in Karachi City.
Order and Institutionalization
- One point of order consumed 20 minutes of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on May 26, 2018 (Friday) 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 Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation, a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted