ISLAMABAD, December 22, 2015: Starting 108 minutes behind the schedule, the Provincial Assembly of Sindh witnessed introduction of three private members’ bills and adoption of one resolution on Tuesday during seventh and last sitting of its 22nd session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Some key observations are as follows:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Sindh Assembly met for 2 hours and 19 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1148 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- Sixty (36%) lawmakers were present at the start and 69 (41%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- A maximum of 109 (65%) members attended the sitting.
- The Speaker chaired the sitting for 36 minutes.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for 105 minutes.
- The Chief Minister was present for an hour and 34 minutes.
- The Leader of Opposition was absent.
- Parliamentary leaders of PML-F and PML-N attended the sitting.
- Six minority members attended the sitting.
- Three members applied for leave.
Output
- The lawmakers belonging to PML-F introduced three Private Members’ bills before the House. These bills included the Sindh Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill, 2015, the Sindh Minorities Rights Commission Bill, 2015 and the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill, 2015.
- Moved by PPPP lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a private members’ resolution to pay tribute to Shaheed Benazir Bhutto on her death anniversary on December 27.
- The House passed a Motion under Rule 256 moved by Senior Minister for Information to condemn the objectionable remarks by Opposition members’ against the Speaker.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up four out of seven starred questions appearing on the agenda. In addition, the members asked 27 supplementary questions.
- A Privilege Motion of a lawmaker belonging to MQM was referred to the Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers belonging to PML-F, PTI, PML-N and MQM protested within the House for 6 minutes against the attitude of the Speaker.
- The Opposition lawmakers except two members belonging to PML-F staged a token walkout from the House for two minutes against the Chair for not allowing a lawmaker of MQM to table motion under Rule 256.
- Members spoke on three Points of Order consuming three minutes of the sitting.
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
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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.