ISLAMABAD, March 6: The fifth sitting of Sindh Assembly’s 34th session, starting an hour and 20 minutes behind schedule, met for three hours and 20 minutes took up the Registration (Sindh Amendment) bill 2012.
The sitting witnessed low attendance of Members as 14 were present when the House opened proceedings and 48 at the adjournment.
Twenty-six Points of Order consumed 55 minutes of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting. The parliamentary leaders of the PML (F-B), MQM and ANP were present.
The Assembly will meet again on Thursday.
The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and 20 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1120 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings were delayed by an hour and 20 minutes.
- The Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and a member of the Chairperson’s panel chaired the sitting.
- The Speaker chaired the sitting for two hours and 20 minutes, the Deputy Speaker for 55 minutes and a Member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired the sitting for ten minutes.
- The parliamentary leaders of the PML (F-B), MQM and ANP were present while those of PMLF, PML, NPP and PPPP did not attend the sitting.
- Fourteen Members (8% of the total Membership) were present at the start while 48 (27%) were there when the sitting was adjourned.
- Five minority Members were present during the proceedings.
Representation and Responsiveness
- All eight Questions were taken up and responded by the relevant ministries. A total of 22 Supplementary questions were asked.
Output
- The Registration (Sindh Amendment) bill 2012 was introduced and referred to the Standing Committee on Local Government.
- A Resolution calling on the Sindh government to take immediate measures for the treatment of industrial waste water as to facilitate vegetable cultivation and other agricultural activities in Malir, and other industrial zones was adopted by the House.
Order and Institutionalization
- Twenty-six Points of Order consumed 55 minutes of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
- There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts during the sitting.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
- Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
- The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting. However, it was not pointed out by any of the MPAs.
The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN