Sindh Assembly holds online session due to COVID-19 emergency

The Sindh Assembly on Monday unanimously amended its own rules of procedure to become the first elected legislature of the country to hold an online session, enabling its elderly members and those suffering from the coronavirus infection to participate in the proceedings of the house from their homes.

At the start of the new session of the provincial assembly, up to 25 per cent lawmakers attended the proceedings of the house physically as 28 seats were allotted for the treasury lawmakers, while 25 seats were reserved for the opposition legislators.

Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said they wanted to end the proceedings of the house early in view of the prevailing coronavirus emergency. Owing to the request of the parliamentary affairs minister, the proceedings of the house related to different items of the agenda were deferred, including the question hour, call attention notices, and an adjournment motion.

After amendments carried out in different clauses of the rules of procedure of the Sindh Assembly, the speaker has been empowered to transform the mode of proceedings of any session of the house from the regular one to an online session.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said the coronavirus testing of 90 legislators of the house had been completed, as reports of 83 of them were negative, while the outcome of the test of nine MPAs was positive.

He said Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) lawmaker Arif Mustafa Jatoi had tested positive for COVID-19; however, the opposition MPA had expressed doubts about the test result.

The CM advised the elderly lawmakers in the house to not physically come to the assembly building, as they had now been given the option of attending the session from the comfort of their homes.

He said the holding of virtual proceedings of the assembly was necessary given the prevailing emergency related to the coronavirus epidemic. The IT department of the NED University of Engineering & Technology has provided technical assistance to conduct online proceedings of the session of the provincial legislature.

Later, a trial run of the proceedings of the Sindh Assembly was carried out as the Sindh CM went to his chamber inside the assembly building to virtually take part in the proceedings of the house.

Advisers to CM

The Sindh Assembly withdrew the power of the governor to appoint advisers to the CM.

The CM has now been authorised to appoint his own aides.

The powers were withdrawn in the form of the government bill namely the Sindh Advisers (Appointment, Powers, Functions, Salaries, Allowances, and Privileges (Amendment) Bill-2019.

The bill was passed by the house on the basis of a report of the Standing Committee on Law and Parliamentary Affairs, which had considered the draft of the bill.

The house also passed the Sindh COVID-19 Emergency Relief Bill-2020 to offer a number of relief measures to the people of the province during the coronavirus emergency.

The provincial assembly also passed the Sind Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill-2020 to introduce penal measures against people and institutions responsible for a deliberate spread of the infectious diseases in the province. These two bills were earlier promulgated in the province in the form ordinance in view of the ongoing COVID-19 emergency.

The house will now meet on Wednesday (tomorrow) at 2 pm with the option of online proceedings of the house for the presentation of the Sindh government budget for the financial year 2020-21.