Women MPAs leading debates in PA
Karachi: The four-year performance of the Sindh Assembly demonstrates that the women MPAs have been leading in the house in terms of their active participation in discussions.
A comparative list of the performance of the MPAs showed that NPP’s Arif Mustafa Jatoi submitted 1,179 questions followed by the MQM’s Heer Soho with 1,330 questions, the PML-F’s Nusrat Abbasi with 1,067 questions and the PPP’s Humera Alwani with 1,330 questions.
“Ladies are leading in the field,” said Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, but hastened to add that it did not mean that others were not “active” legislators. “Anwar Mahar presented a report for bringing reforms in agriculture sector while he is also engaged in preparing a comprehensive report on the causes and solutions of law and order in the province,” said Khuhro.
The speaker said that different members were performing different tasks, which could not be ignored.
Giving details of the four years’ performance of the assembly from April 5, 2008 to April 4, 2012, Khuhro said a total of 10,006 questions were asked, of which 2,867 were laid on the floor of the house.
The assembly received 108 government bills, of which 76 bills were passed while 15 bills were still under consideration.
According to the performance report, a total of 31 private bills were moved out, of which the government did not give consent for eight bills, and only five private bills were referred to the standing committees for debate.
The assembly did not grant leave for nine private bills while one bill was introduced. Three bills were withdrawn, while two bills were returned to the MPAs. Therefore, not a single private bill was passed in the house during the four years.
The MPAs moved a total of 1,033 resolutions, of which only 40 were passed while 984 got lapsed. Five resolutions were referred to standing committees and four were withdrawn.
The speaker said majority of the resolutions got lapsed because the same were moved on private member’s day which happens to be one day in a week. However, 137 out-of-turn resolutions were moved and all were passed.
The MPAs submitted a total of 28 privilege motions, of which 14 were lapsed. Six privilege motions were referred to standing committees; five were withdrawn; and two were referred to special committees. One motion was declared out of order.
Khuhro opined that small number of privilege motions reflected that the MPAs’ grievances were being addressed.
The MPAs moved 41 adjournment motions to debate different issues, of which 31 lapsed, four were withdrawn and six were termed out of order.
The report said that 342 motions were moved by the members, of which 338 lapsed, while four were referred to different committees.
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