Zubair Qureshi
As the 15th National Assembly concluded its 4th parliamentary year, the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency (PILDAT) has released an analysis of the performance of the National Assembly based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
PILDAT comparative analysis tells how the three-year-and-8 month period of the National Assembly under Prime Imran Khan as Prime Minister was different from the same period in the 14th National Assembly.
Legislative activity witnessed a decrease of 8 per cent in the fourth year of the 15th National Assembly as it passed 55 laws compared to 60 bills passed during the third year of the Assembly. However, in a comparison of legislation between the four years of 15th and 14th National Assembly, the 15th National Assembly has passed 155 bills in the 4 year period while the 14th National Assembly had passed 125 bills in its first 4 years.
Excessive reliance on issuing ordinances has been witnessed during four years of the 15th National Assembly through seventy-four (74) ordinances laid in the Assembly. Sixteen (16) ordinances were laid in the Assembly in the fourth year compared to twenty (20) ordinances laid in the Assembly during the third year which is a decrease of about 20pc.
The 15th National Assembly of Pakistan has only met for 87 days in the fourth parliamentary year. The Assembly has met for 10pc more days than it was convened during its third year, which were 79 sittings. However, on the average, 15th National Assembly has met for 88 working days per year in its first 4 years in comparison with an average of 99 working days per year in the previous (14th) National Assembly.
Regarding working hours, in its fourth year, the 15th National Assembly has met for 178 hours and 1 minute. This means that the working hours of the Assembly have declined by 18% from the third year of the Assembly when it had convened for a total of 217 hours and 10 minutes.
The 15th National Assembly could not dispose of nearly 41pc of planned agenda items in 87 sittings, which is a bulk of the agenda by any standard. On average, 58.87pc agenda items were left over in the sittings during the fourth year of the Assembly.
During the fourth year, average attendance of MNAs was recorded at 67pc until April 9, 2022. After the PTI tenure, average attendance of MNAs during 4th year dropped to 51pc which is 14 percentage points lower than the attendance of MNAs during the third year which was 65pc. During the fourth year of the National Assembly, Imran Khan, MNA attended only one (1) sitting (1.14pc) of the Assembly while he held the office of Prime Minister. He attended a total of 34 or 11pc sittings of the 15th National Assembly. Mr. Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, MNA, who took oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan on April 11, 2022, has attended 8 out of 43 or only 19% sittings of the National Assembly since.
