PM attended 9pc of NA sittings in 3rd parliamentary year; Opposition Leader’s attendance remained 14pc
Zubair Qureshi
Prime Minister Imran Khan attended 9 per cent of the National Assembly sittings in the third parliamentary year, which is consistent with his attendance during the second year.
On average, Prime Minister has attended 12 per cent sittings in the first 3 years of the 15th National Assembly.
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, had attended, on average 16 per cent of the sittings in the first 3 years of the 14th National Assembly of Pakistan.
This has been revealed in a performance review of the 3rd year of the 15th National Assembly of Pakistan issued by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency (PILDAT) on Monday.
Leader of the Opposition Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has attended 13 per cent of the sittings of the Assembly in its third year.
Legislative activity has seen a sharp increase in the third year of the 15th National Assembly as it has passed 60 laws.
This is 100 per cent increase over 30 bills passed in the second year by the Assembly. The first year had seen the passage of only 10 bills, says the PILDAT report.
The National Assembly also passed 100 bills during the first three years, compared to 69 total bills which were passed by the 14th National Assembly in its first 3 years.
The increase in legislative activity in the 15th National Assembly in its first three years is, therefore, 45 per cent higher than the legislation during the first three years of the previous (14th) National Assembly.
Another positive development has been the decrease in the number of ordinances laid by the Government in the Assembly during the third year.
20 ordinances were laid in the Assembly in the third year, compared to 31 ordinances laid in the Assembly during its second year, which is a decrease of about 35 per cent.
29 ordinances were laid by the previous government in the first 3 years of the 14th National Assembly compared to 58 ordinances laid by the current government in the 15th National Assembly in three years, showing 100 per cent increase.
During its third year, the National Assembly has met only for 79 working days, which has seen a decline of 11 per cent from 89 working days in the second year. On the average, the assembly has met for 88 working days per year in its first 3 years.
In comparison, the previous (14th) National Assembly had met for an average of 99 working days per year during its first 3 years.
In that sense also, the performance of the 15th National Assembly has declined by 11 per cent compared to the 14th National Assembly.
