ISLAMABAD, January 06, 2012: The Sindh Assembly met for an hour and 45 minutes, its ninth sitting of the ongoing session. The sitting was marked by low attendance of Members with only 42 present at the start of the sitting and 47 at the end.

The House passed the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) (Second Amendment) Bill, 2011, and took up all five questions which appeared on the Agenda. Twelve supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

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

The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for an hour and 45 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1050 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings were delayed by 50 minutes.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting for an hour and 30 minutes, while a Member of Panel of Chairperson was in the chair for 15 minutes. The Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister was not present during the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of the PML (forward block), PPPP, MQM, NPP and PMLF attended the sitting while leaders of the ANP and PML were absent.
• Forty-two Members (25% of the total Membership) were present at the start while 47 (28%) were there when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 64 Members (39%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• There were five minority Members present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• All the five questions listed for the Question Hour were put up and responded to by the relevant ministries.
• Twelve supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

Output

• The Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) (Second Amendment) Bill, 2011 was unanimously passed by the House. The Sales Tax on Services (Amendment) Bill, 2011 was deferred. 

Order and Institutionalization

• Sixteen Points of Order were raised which consumed 18 minutes (17% 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