ISLAMABAD, December 15, 2015: Starting 95 minutes behind the schedule, the Sindh Assembly left two thirds of its agenda unaddressed amidst low attendance of lawmakers on Tuesday during first Private Members’ day of ongoing 22nd session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
The unaddressed agenda included five private members’ bills, nine amendments to the Rules of Procedure, five resolutions and as many private motions.
Some key observations are as follows:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Sindh Assembly met for 2 hours and 50 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1135 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- Thirty-six (22%) lawmakers were present at the start and 45 (27%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- A maximum of 84 (50%) members attended the sitting.
- The Speaker chaired the sitting for an hour and 40 minutes.
- Deputy Speaker presided over the rest of the proceeding.
- The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 35 minutes.
- The Leader of Opposition attended the sitting for 165 minutes.
- Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-F, PML-N and PTI attended the sitting.
- Six minority members attended the sitting.
- Six members applied for leave.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up five out of 17 starred questions appearing on the agenda. The members also asked 31 supplementary questions.
- The Speaker rejected a privilege motion by lawmaker belonging to MQM against Karachi Administrator regarding complaints of garbage collection and unavailability of streetlights.
Order and Institutionalization
- Members of PML-F, PTI and PML-N protested against the attitude of the Chair for not allowing a PML-F lawmaker to speak on floor of the House.
- The members belonging to MQM staged a walk-out for 16 minutes.
- Members spoke on three Points of Order consuming 16 minutes (9%) of the proceeding.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others
- Information on legislators’ attendance was available to the observers and the public
To download the Factsheet, Click here
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.