As the legislature assembly of Sindh nears completion of its five-year tenure, the questions asked by the parliamentarian from more than eleven government departments remain unanswered since the last three years, it has been learnt.
The departments that had yet to answer the queries of parliamentarians included the Sindh Department of Antiquities, Supply and Prices, cooperation, finance, health, land utilisation, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, rural development, Services and General Administration, police and the human rights departments respectively.
The finance and health departments were headed by highly competent, extremely well educated and well-spoken ministers, but their presence had not encouraged anyone to answer even one question put forth by parliamentarians in three out of the last five parliamentary years. Moreover, the finance department had only answered a total of 35 questions over the last five years.
Each year since the Sindh Assembly first met in April 2008; the honorable speaker of the assembly had issued a report on the performance of the members during the parliamentary year. This report had included bills submitted, adjournment motions, questions and other matters. This step taken by the speaker had been a very positive and commendable step.
However, just as it was the duty of the Members of Provincial Assembly (MPA) to ask questions from the government, it was also the duty of the government to respond to the queries and demands of the MPAs representing the people of Sindh in the provincial assembly. “I have requested the speaker on several occasions to issue a report on the performance of each department in the assembly, but unfortunately no response has been received by me so far,” MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi said.
Therefore, from my own records and the data available on the Sindh Assembly website and the library, I have prepared this report so that the general public could see the performance of their government in the assembly at least with regard to the many questions that were waiting to be answered by the departments concerned, he added.
Failing to provide answers to important questions had poorly reflected on the government’s sincerity towards the democratic process, the MPA said, adding that if they were not prepared to answer questions raised by elected representatives, what hope did the ordinary people had of holding the government accountable?
Meanwhile, key departments which were well known for rampant corruption had avoided accountability in the provincial assembly and included Land Utilisation department, Revenue department and others.
Even the department responsible for controlling corruption (Anti-Corruption Department) had only answered 17 questions on the floor of the Sindh Assembly
Arif Jatoi also said that in any democracy, accountability of the government to the Parliament was the foundation of open and transparent government, while adding that this government had clearly not exposed all its departments and ministers for public scrutiny, which poorly reflected on the performance of the current “Peoples” government.
I hope in the future, the Sindh Assembly would be able to release its own reports regarding the performance of the government, he concluded.
