Zubair Qureshi
The conclusion of the 15th National Assembly in the midnight of August 9, 2023 has left democracy almost as vulnerable as at the time of its first sitting in July, 2018.
The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency (PILDAT) on Thursday presented a dismal picture and rated the performance of the outgoing National Assembly as poor and unsatisfactory.
According to the PILDAT, the National Assembly and Pakistan’s elected representatives, unfortunately, instead of strengthening democratic institutions weakened them and risked the very existence of democracy in the country during the 5-year tenure.
In its 5-year term, the 15th National Assembly was convened for 452 sittings or average 90 sittings per year, much less than the previous (14th) National Assembly that was convened for 495 sittings or on average 99 sittings per year which in itself is not a great performance but it still shows a decrease of 9pc in sittings, the report says.
The assembly also passed a total of 279 pieces of legislation in 5 years with the latest flurry of hasty legislation undermining basic tenets of the constitutional scheme of democracy and human rights. Legislative activity in the 15th National Assembly witnessed an increase of 45pc over the 192 laws passed during the 14th National Assembly, the report further said.
The 15th National Assembly also witnessed two governments: First from August 18, 2018 to April 10, 2022 with the PTI Chairman Imran Khan as Prime Minister and the second government was formed by a coalition of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) with Shehbaz Sharif as PM which lasted from April 11, 2022 to August 09, 2023.
According to the PILDAT, the PTI government relied heavily on ordinances for the purpose of legislation. Out of 75 ordinances laid in the National Assembly in five years, only three were promulgated by the coalition government while 72 were promulgated by the PTI government. Compared to the term of the 14th National Assembly when only 38 ordinances were promulgated, a 97pc increase was witnessed in the number of ordinances passed by the 15th National Assembly.
The 15th National Assembly also passed the biggest number of laws compared to the previous three Assemblies starting from 2002. Just during the last three weeks of the 15th National Assembly, 73 bills were passed. Out of these 73 bills, 36 (49%) bills were not referred to concerned committees and rushed through the plenary without a meaningful debate. A newspaper commented that “… these laws were drafted in secrecy and passed in haste,” says the PILDAT report.
While the previous assemblies had been pushed by successive governments to rush legislation sometime to fulfill international obligations, a large number of the laws passed by the 15th National Assembly related to Pakistan’s foreign obligations.
