ISLAMABAD, January 07, 2012: The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and four minutes, its tenth sitting of the ongoing session. The sitting was marked by low attendance of Members with only 17 present at the start of the sitting and 42 at the end.

The House passed the Sales Tax on Services (Amendment) Bill, 2011, and took up all six questions which appeared on the Agenda. Thirty-nine supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

The Parliamentary Leaders of the PML (forward block), PPPP, MQM and ANP attended the sitting.

The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for three hours and four minutes.
• The sitting started at 1126 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings were delayed by 86 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the sitting. The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister was not present during the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of the PML (forward block), PPPP, MQM, and ANP attended the sitting while leaders of the NPP, PML and PMLF were absent.
• Seventeen Members (10% of the total Membership) were present at the start while 42 (25%) were there when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 54 Members (32%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• There were five minority Members present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• All the six questions listed for the Question Hour were put up and responded to by the relevant ministries.
• Thirty-nine supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

Output

• The Sales Tax on Services (Amendment) Bill, 2011 was passed by the House. 
• The House adopted a Resolution paying homage and tribute to Sufi Saint and Poet, Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.

Order and Institutionalization

• Fourteen Points of Order were raised which consumed 19 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 during the sitting. However, lack of Quorum was not pointed out by any Member.

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