Sindh Assembly’s standing committees fail to deliver

The 34 committees were supposed to prepare, submit reports on ministries

KARACHI: As many as 34 standing committees assigned to review the performance of various ministries and departments have failed to prepare and submit their reports to the Sindh Assembly, The Express Tribune has learnt.

These committees were not only supposed to review and monitor the working of ministries such as health, tourism and culture, home, religious affairs, but also make recommendations suggesting improvements in their performance. Sindh Assembly Secretary Umar Farooq confirmed to The Express Tribune the non-submission of the reports.



While the Sindh Assembly took a lead over other provincial assemblies in its legislative output from 2013 to 2018, its standing committees utterly failed to perform despite millions of rupees incurred to sustain them.

Under Section 160 of the Sindh Assembly Rules, each standing committee comprises 11 elected members. Their responsibilities include the periodical monitoring of the working and performance of their respective departments and attending to complaints, if any, about their service delivery. These committees are also supposed to review and vet the bills and legislative papers which are forwarded to them by the House.

According to the assembly secretariat, while the Assembly’s 34 standing committees held multiple meetings from 2013 to 2018 with their chairpersons enjoying transport and other facilities, none of the committees submitted its report to the assembly secretariat or present it in the House in the past five years. A few standing committees presented reports regarding the bills sent by the parliament, but comprehensive reports based on the performance of the committee, meeting details and recommendations were never compiled.

As per assembly rules, it is mandatory to compile the proceedings of each of the standing committee meetings and under these rules, the committees are obligated to produce the reports.



Most standing committees were headed by members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, but MPAs from Muttahida Qaumi Movement - Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were also members of these committees.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2018.