A three-year-old Bill on domestic violence against women and children was deferred during the 33rd session of the Sindh Assembly.
The Domestic Violence (prevention and protection) Bill 2008 was presented by a female Private Member more than three years ago and covers physical, sexual, emotional, social, economic and psychological abuse committed by a person against the victim with whom they are in a relationship. It guarantees a minimum sentence of three years as well as monthly monetary relief (including full costs of medical treatment) to the victim. Other issues highlighted were through three Resolutions which were adopted.
The Parliamentarians demanded the report on Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s assassination be published. Another Resolution passed was to enact a law for setting up a Drug Regulatory Authority while the third called for establishing campuses of Karachi University in Naushehro Feroz and Tharparkar.
Apart from Bills and Resolutions, the Members asked 60 Starred questions (requiring oral responses) of the Ministries of Irrigation, Labour, Auqaf, Information Technology, and Supply and Prices. Nearly half (48%) of these were taken up. An additional 173 Supplementary questions were also asked.
Additional issues, like the media, doctors’ employment, education, health, language, police violence and precautionary measures against natural calamities etc. were brought to the floor of the House through 64 Points of Orders which consumed 20% of the session time otherwise allocated for regular Agenda.
None of these Points of Order attracted a formal ruling from the Chair and did not contribute to any Assembly output.
Despite the erroneous usage of POs to make speeches rather than pointing out any breaches in parliamentary discipline, the members’ representational priorities can be gauged from the matters raised through Points of Order.
Overall, only 46% of the Members – 56 male and 20 female – participated in the session by submitting Agenda items on the Orders of the Day or by taking part in debates. The participation of female MPAs was 65% of their total Membership (31) while male Members’ participation was 41% of their total Membership of 56.
The 33rd session comprising five sittings met for 11 hours and 20 minutes with each sitting on average being delayed by 87 minutes. Each sitting lasted an average two hours and 16 minutes.
The attendance of Members was relatively better than the previous session – an average of 54 present at the start and 71 at the end of each sitting.
The Speaker chaired the proceedings for 96% of the session time while the remaining 4% was presided over by the Deputy Speaker. The Chief Minister was present in only two sittings, for 11% of the total time (80 minutes).
The Parliamentary Leader of MQM attended all sittings, those of the ANP, PML and PML (F-B) four each, NPP and PPPP three each while the PMLF leader attended two sittings. All these parties which Members are affiliated with are in Government Alliance and there is no Opposition Alliance in the Assembly.
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