ISLAMABAD, October 7, 2019: The Sindh Assembly addressed most of its agenda on Monday and adopted a supplementary resolution and a government bill as well, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 12^th sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 40 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours while rest of the sitting was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of the House attended the proceedings for 38 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 48 minutes.
• As many as 47 MPAs (28%) were present at the outset and 56 (33%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, GDA, MQM and PTI attended the proceedings.
• Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Local Government, the House passed the Coastal Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019 after presentation of the Standing Committee’s report on it.
• Moved by a PPPP lawmaker, the House adopted a supplementary resolution urging the Federal Government not to use Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) space for Karachi-Peshawar (ML-1) Highways project.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Local Government Department responded to three out of eight starred questions while the lawmakers asked 21 supplementary questions as well.
• The Ministers responded to four out of five Call Attention Notice (CANs) appearing on agenda. The responded CANs highlighted the issues related to garbage transfer station in midst of a populated area of Karachi, dilapidated condition of dispensaries and hospitals working under local government department in Karachi, poor performance of Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and non-functional Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant at District Taharparkar.
• The Chair rejected an Adjournment Motion (AM) of a PTI lawmaker regarding selling of coal in open market.
• Another AM of same lawmaker about problems of Steel Mill Karachi and its employees was not debated due to shortage of time. It was admitted for discussion during 6^thsitting of the same session.

Order and Institutionalization

• An MQM lawmaker staged a protest for two minutes against the controversial remarks by a PPPP lawmaker about his leadership.
• The lawmakers belonging to GDA, MQMP and PTI protested for two minutes against the attitude of the Chair who did not allow them to speak on the resolution.
• Five lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming eight minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on October 8, 2019 (Tuesday) 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