ISLAMABAD, January 20, 2012: The Sindh Assembly met for an hour and 40 minutes on Friday, its 16th sitting of the ongoing session.

Out of the 10 questions listed for the Question Hour, five were put up and responded to by relevant ministries. Twenty-five supplementary questions were asked.

Fifty Members (30% of total Membership) were present at the start and 76 (46%) when the sitting was adjourned.

Only the Parliamentary Leaders of ANP and NPP attended the sitting

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for an hour and 40 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1130 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings started an hour and 20 minutes late.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting.
• The Chief Minister was not present. The Parliamentary Leaders of ANP and NPP attended the sitting while those of the PML (forward block), MQM, PMLF, PPPP, and PML were absent.
• Fifty Members (30% of total Membership) were present at the start and 76 (46%) when the sitting was adjourned.
• Three minority Members were present during the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Out of the 10 questions listed for the Question Hour, five were put up and responded to by relevant ministries.
• Twenty-five supplementary questions were asked.

Output

• Two Bills – the Indus University Bill, 2011 and the Establishment of the Office of Ombudsman for the Province Of Sindh (Amendment) Bill, 2012 – were not taken up by the House.

Order and Institutionalization

• Ten Points of Order consumed 20 minutes of sitting time. However, none of them attracted formal ruling of the Chair.

• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts.  

 Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), a member organization of FAFEN