ISLAMABAD, February 11, 2022: The Sindh Assembly took up entire agenda on Friday and passed one government bill, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the first sitting of 26th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 36 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 20 minutes due to prayer breaks.
• The sitting started at 04:22 pm against the scheduled time of 03:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy speaker was also present.
• The leader of the House (chief minister) attended the sitting for 15 minutes.
• The leader of the opposition was present for two hours and five minutes.
• As many as 56 MPAs (33 percent) were present at the outset and 78 (46 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, GDA, TLP, MQMP and MMAP attended the proceedings.
• Six out of nine minority lawmakers attended the proceedings.

 Output

• Moved by the Minister for parliamentary affairs, the House passed the Sindh Students Union Bill, 2019. Earlier, the Chairman standing committee on parliamentary affairs presented report on this bill.
• Minister for parliamentary affairs introduced the Sindh Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Sindh Fund Management House Bill, 2021 and the Constitution of the Search Committee Bill, 2022.
• The speaker announced about the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2021 to be deemed assented by the governor, as contemplated in clause (3) of Article 116 of the Constitution.
• The speaker also announced about assent of the governor to eight other bills which were the Sindh Food Fortification Bill, 2021; the Sindh Mines and Minerals Governance Bill, 2021; the Sindh Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Sindh Telemedicine and Telehealth Bill, 2021; the Education City (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Sindh Factories (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Sindh Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Sindh Solid Waste Management Bill, 2021.

 Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up three calling attention notices about non-issuance of appointment letters against the posts of Assistant in sports department, more than one documents of each property in Musharaf Colony Hub River Road, District Keamari and dumping garbage at Malir stream.
• A PTI lawmaker withdrew his privilege motion following the assurance of the Minister for parliamentary affairs to look into the issue. His motion was regarding non-appearance of his seven bills on `Orders of the Day’.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion for debate which was about economic policies of the country and role of International Monetary Fund.
• The House took up five out of seven starred questions while lawmakers asked 18 supplementary questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• Two lawmakers spoke on points of order for three minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, February 14, 2022 at 02:00 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 Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted