ISLAMABAD, November 25, 2016: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh took up entire business on the agenda and unanimously adopted a resolution to ensure implementation of the law on violence against women, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during eighth sitting of the 28th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Sindh Assembly met for two hours and 30 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1110 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- The proceedings were suspended for three minutes due to a prayer break.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for 55 minutes while the rest of proceeding was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
- The Chief Minister was absent.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 45 minutes.
- Thirty-six lawmakers (21%) were present at start and 46 (27%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PTI were present.
- Three minority members also attended the sitting.
- Fourteen members applied for leave.
Output
- Introduced by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House referred the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law, Karachi (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to relevant standing committee.
- The House unanimously adopted a joint resolution urging the provincial government to ensure the implementation of law passed by assembly on violence against women. The resolution was taken up as supplementary agenda.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Four out of five Starred Questions were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministers. The lawmakers also asked 21 Supplementary Questions.
- The Speaker rejected the Adjournment Motion (AM) of a PTI lawmaker regarding recruitments in Sindh government departments. Two lawmakers spoke on the subject for 10 minutes.
- The House took up five Call Attention Notices (CANs) on various issues of public importance.
- The House elected Syed Ajiaz Hussain Shah Bukhari (PPPP) as member of the Public Accounts Committee.
Order and Institutionalization
- Two lawmakers spoke on as many Points of Order consuming four minutes of the proceedings.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Attendance of lawmakers was not available on website of the Assembly.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceedings, conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.