Sindh PA Skips Regular Agenda, Demands Third Party Audit of Census

ISLAMABAD, December 10, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh did not take up its regular business appearing on agenda and unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution demanding third party audit of the sixth population census, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daly Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are the key observations of the House proceedings during 33^rd sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and six minutes.
•  The sitting started at 1550 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 30 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the proceedings.
• As many as 54 MPAs (32%) were present at the outset and 67 (40%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MQM, TLP, MMAP and PPPP attended the proceedings.
• Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House did not take up any agenda item appearing on Orders of the Day.
• The House unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution demanding the federal government to conduct third party audit of the sixth population census. Six lawmaker spoke on it for 28 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up four out of nine starred questions while the lawmakers asked 15 supplementary questions as well.
• Minister for Information gave a statement for 10 minutes regarding reports about stoning a girl to death in Dadu and abduction of a girl from DHA Karachi.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 11, 2019 (Wednesday) at 1400 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of the 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