ISLAMABAD, August 21, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh passed five government bills and adopted a supplementary resolution on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the 1^st sitting of the 13^th session:  

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and seven minutes.
• The sitting started at 1535 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire proceedings in the absence of the Speaker.
• The Leader of the House was absent.
• The Opposition Leader attend the entire sitting.
• As many as 39 MPAs (23%) were present at the outset and 52 (31%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI and MMA attended the sitting.
• As many as eight out of nine minority lawmakers were also present.

Output

• The House passed five government bills including the Sindh Seized and Freezed Facilities (Hospitals and Dispensaries) Bill, 2020; the Sindh Seized and Freezed Institutions (Madaris and Schools) Bill, 2020; the Sindh Trusts Bill, 2020; the Sindh Co-Operative Societies Bill, 2020 and the Sindh Waqf Properties Bill, 2020.
• The House unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution to pay tribute to Islam’s second caliph Hazart Umar Farooq (Radi Allahu ta’ala Anhu) on his Yaum-e-Shahadat (the day of martyrdom).

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up all five starred questions. In addition, lawmakers also asked two supplementary questions.
• An Adjournment Motion about reduction in GDP growth was not taken up by the House.

Order and Institutionalization

• The opposition lawmakers from MQM, PTI and MMA walked out from the House at 1622 after ten minutes protest  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. This will be the city’s seventh district.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on August 24, 2020 (Monday) at 1400 hours.

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