ISLAMABAD, January 08, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of the Sindh transacted most of its agenda and discussed the sit-in protest by the families of slain miners in Quetta, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of 17th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for two hours and ten minutes.
- The sitting started at 1550 hours against the scheduled time of 1430 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 48 minutes while a Member of Panel of Chairpersons presided the remaining sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker was absent.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Thirty legislators (18%) were present at the outset and 18 (11%) at the end of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of MMAP and PPPP attended the proceedings.
- Seven out of eight minority lawmakers were present.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up all six starred questions appearing on the agenda. The lawmakers asked 22 supplementary questions as well.
- The House took up three Calling Attention Notices (CANs) related to shortage of furniture in 800 schools of Ghotki, reports of corruption in Sindh Finance Department and non-approval of Scheduled New Expenditure (SNE) for Qatar Hospital in Karachi.
- Two other CANs on the agenda were deferred due to the absence of relevant ministers.
- The Chair admitted an adjournment motion of PPPP lawmaker for debate which was regarding conduct of MDCAT test by Pakistan Medical Commission from Federal Syllabus.
- A Privilege Motion of MMAP lawmaker was deferred due to absence of its mover.
- Ministers for Education, Women Development and Mines expressed their views about Mach tragedy and criticized statement of Prime Minister about Hazara protestors. They consumed 28 minutes of the proceedings.
Order and Institutionalization
- The House was adjourned to meet again on January 11, 2021 (Monday) at 1300 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 proceeding conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)– a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted