ISLAMABAD, January 30, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh addressed its entire business scheduled for Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 15th sitting of the fourth session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for two hours and 37 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1120 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 41 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
- The Leader of the House attended the sitting for 54 minutes.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 35 minutes.
- As many as 41 lawmakers (24%) were present at outset and 59 lawmakers (35%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, MQMP and MMAP attended the sitting.
- As many as seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- Moved by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed the Code of Civil Procedure (Sindh Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Bill, 2018. The bills were earlier passed by the House on January 10, 2019 but were returned by the Governor with a request to reconsider the bills. The Leader of the House made a statement on the amendment in Code of Civil Procedure for two minutes while seven lawmakers debated the Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Bill, 2018 for 45 minutes.
- The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs introduced the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The House referred the bill to a Select Committee. The House has yet not constituted its standing committees.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Minister for Health responded to three out of seven Starred Questions while the remaining four questions were not addressed. The lawmakers asked 16 supplementary questions as well.
- The Ministers for Parliamentary Affairs, Social Welfare and Local Government responded to four Call Attention Notices (CANs) regarding closure of Small Industries Corporation, remedial measurements regarding beggars at traffic signals in Karachi, expenditures of Commissioners, Mayors, Municipal Commissioner (KDA), and District Council Officers, and increase in incidents of snatching and robbery in Korangi. Another CAN regarding clean drinking water project for Karachi was not taken up due to absence of the mover.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as four lawmakers raised Points of Order (POs) consuming nine minutes of the proceedings.
- The lawmakers belonging to PPPP, GDA and PTI protested for two minutes against decision of the Chair to disallow a GDA lawmaker to ask a supplementary question.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on February 4, 2019 (Monday) 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.