ISLAMABAD, May 21, 2015: The Sindh Assembly passed a government bill on Thursday as the House continued to witness low attendance of lawmakers, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The sitting started 68 minutes behind the schedule with 20 members present at the start and 63 at the time of adjournment. The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting, while the Opposition Leader was present for 46% of the proceedings’ time.

The House passed the Sindh Service Tribunals (Fourth Amendment) Bill 2015 and adopted a resolution to appreciate the timely arrest of culprits involved in the bus attack in Karachi that killed nearly 45 people of the Ismaili community last week.

The Chair also announced the Sindh Governor’s assent on the Sindh Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill 2015.

Following are some key observations of the assembly business:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for two hour and 55 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1108 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The sitting was entirely chaired by the Sindh Assembly Speaker.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• 20 members (12%) were present at the start and 63 (38%) at the time of adjournment.
• A maximum of 67 (40%) lawmakers were present at one point of the sitting.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Opposition Leader was present for 81 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N and PTI were present.
• Three out of nine minority members were present.
• No member applied for leave.

Output

• The House passed the Sindh Service Tribunals (Fourth Amendment) Bill 2015.
• The House also adopted a resolution to appreciate the timely arrest of culprits involved in the bus attack in Karachi last week.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up three out of five questions on the agenda which were addressed to the Department of Minorities’ Affairs.
• The lawmakers also raised 14 supplementary questions during the sitting.
• The House also took an adjournment motion on illegal appointments by the Karachi Administrator. However, the motion was dropped as the Speaker termed it “out of order”. 

Order and Institutionalization

• Sixteen points of order consumed 24 minutes of the sitting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the members, observers and the public.
• Information on members’ attendance was available to the observers and the public.

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.