ISLAMABAD, June 22, 2021: The Sindh Assembly continued general discussion on provincial budget 2021-22 and 18 lawmakers took part in the debate, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 14th sitting of the 21st session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for four hours and 39 minutes.
• The sitting started at 01:15 pm against the scheduled time of 12:00 pm.
• The speaker chaired the proceedings for an hour and 42 minutes, while the deputy speaker presided over the rest of the sitting.
• The leader of the House (Chief Minister) was absent.
• The opposition leader attended the proceedings for an hour and three minutes.
• As many as 25 MPAs (15 percent) were present at the outset and 18 (11 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, MQMP, GDA, and MMAP were present, while the leader of TLP did not attend the sitting.
• Seven out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Eighteen lawmakers – PPPP (12), PTI (5) and GDA (one) – participated in general discussion on budget for the financial year 2021-22 as well as supplementary budget for the financial year 2020-21. They consumed four hours and 20 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers belonging to PTI protested for two minutes when the Chair did not give extra time to one of their colleague to continue his budget speech. Subsequently, they walked out from the House and did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 at 12:00 pm.

 Transparency                                                              

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not 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