ISLAMABAD, April 25, 2016: The Provincial Minister for Finance started Pre-Budget discussion in Sindh Assembly on Monday during 12^th sitting of its ongoing 24^th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Sindh Assembly met for 71 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1130 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Speaker was absent.
• The Chief Minister was absent.
• The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for 57 minutes.
• 38 lawmakers (24%) were present at the start and 53 (33%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of PPPP, MQM, PML-N and PTI were present.
• One minority member was present.
• Three members applied for leave.

Output

• The Minister for Finance presented the Quarterly Report on Receipts of the Province, Current Revenue, Capital and Development Expenditures from January to March 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Provincial Finance Minister opened Pre-Budget discussion and spoke for 25 minutes.
• A member belonging to MQM spoke for 14 minutes while a PTI lawmaker spoke for four minutes during the Pre-Budget discussion.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on ten Points of Order consuming 13 minutes of the proceeding.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to observers and media.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Sindh Assembly proceedings conducted by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.