ISLAMABAD, March 25, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh transacted its entire agenda and passed two government bills on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of 19th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for two hours and 11 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1515 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leader of the House was absent while the Leader of Opposition attended the proceedings for an hour and 31 minutes.
- Thirty-six legislators (21%) were present at the outset and 46 (27%) at the end of the sitting.
- The Parliamentary Leaders of TLP, MMAP, PTI and PPPP attended the proceedings while the Parliamentary Leaders of GDA and MQMP were absent.
- Six out of nine minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- Minister for Parliamentary Affairs introduced the Sindh Trusts (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which was referred to the relevant Standing Committee for consideration.
- The House passed two government bills which were the Benazir Shaheed University at Lyari Karachi (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Sindh Public Private Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
- A member of Standing Committee on Law & Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights presented the report on the Sindh Public Private Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the House.
- The Speaker announced the assent of Governor to four bills including the Barret Hodgson University at Karachi (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the Sindh Parliamentary Secretaries (Salaries, Allowances and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Control of Narcotics Substance (Sindh Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Sindh Water Management (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
- Minister for Education discussed the sit-in of contractual teachers outside the Sindh Assembly and spoke for ten minutes.
- Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up seven out of ten starred questions related to Department of Information, Science and Technology. In addition, the lawmakers asked 32 supplementary questions.
- Sponsored by a PPPP lawmaker, the Chair admitted an adjournment motion for debate which was regarding hike in prices of electricity.
- The Chair rejected a privilege motion of a MMAP lawmaker which was about horse-trading during the recently held Senate Elections.
Order and Institutionalization
- Five lawmakers belonging to MQMP, PTI and PPPP spoke on points of order for 17 minutes which were related to business of the house and increase in dog bite cases in the province.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on March 26, 2021 (Friday) at 1000 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.
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.