• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, August 24, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh transacted its entire agenda and passed the Sindh Finance (Amendment) Bill, 2020 on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the second and last sitting of the 13^th session:  

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 17 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1339 hours against the scheduled time of 1200 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the proceedings for two hours and 11 minutes while remaining sitting was chaired by a member panel of chairpersons.
• The Speaker and Leader of the House were absent.
• The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for two hours and 46 minutes.
• As many as 44 MPAs (26%) were present at the outset and 50 (30%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of MMAP, PPPP, PTI and TLP attended the sitting.
• As many as eight out of nine minority lawmakers were also present.

Output

• Introduced by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed the Sindh Finance (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
• Four government bills were referred to the relevant committees after their introduction in the House. These bills were the Land Acquisition (Sindh Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Sindh Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Sindh Explosives Bill, 2019 and the Sindh Regularization of Teachers Appointed on Contract Basis (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
• The Chair’s announced Governor’s assent to the eight bills which included the Sindh Teaching Hospitals (Establishment of Management Board) Bill, 2020; the Drugs (Sindh Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Sindh COVID-19 Emergency Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the Education City (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the Sindh Board of Technical Education and the Sindh Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the Sindh Safe Cities Authority Bill, 2019 and the Ziauddin University (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
• Tabled by a PPPP lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution to condemn the harassment to female journalists through various social media accounts.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up seven out of nine starred questions. In addition, lawmakers also asked 20 supplementary questions.
• The House took up four Call Attention Notices (CANs) which demanded to provide group insurance facility to employees of provincial government on their retirement, water scarcity in Karachi, absence of water supply lines in Orangi town and delay in construction of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Road, Lyari.
• The House deferred a CAN due to the absent of relevant minister.

• Moved by a PPPP lawmaker, the chair admitted an adjournment motion for discussion in the next sitting which was about performacne of K-Electric.

Order and Institutionalization

• MQM lawmakers protested for ten minutes during the proceedings against the decision of Sindh cabinet to carve out Keamari district as a new administrative unit from West district – the largest district of Karachi in terms of population.
• GDA lawmakers protested during the proceedings for two minutes against non-allotment of chambers to them in the Assembly.
• The Session was prorogued sine-die.

Transparency                                                              

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