National Assembly's performance: National Assembly passes 16 government bills out of 78 tabled to date

01 Jan, 2010

The 30th National Assembly passed as many as 16 government bills out of the 78 bills/ordinances tabled before it since its inception, while 62 bills are pending and one bill, National Reconciliation Ordinance, was withdrawn. The 62 pending bills are in various standing committees of the National Assembly for vetting and examination.
Similarly, a total of 80 private members' bills were introduced in the Lower House of the Parliament, out of which only two could the lower house's nod. According to documents available with Business Recorder, the new democratic government passed its first Finance Bill on June 23, 2008 and for the first time the defence budget was placed before the House and discussed by the members.
The National Assembly unanimously passed an important bill on the "Protection of Women at Work Places" in its last session on November 5, 2009. A total of 22 unanimous resolutions were passed by the National Assembly during its tenure. Some important resolutions which were passed are as follows:
On April 14, 2008, a resolution condemning the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and requesting the government to approach the United Nations to probe into her assassination was passed unanimously. Two identical resolutions to condemn the publication of highly derogatory and blasphemous caricatures of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) were passed unanimously on April 15, 2008.
Resolution regarding establishment of 58 Parliamentary Friendship groups with Parliaments of other countries, was unanimously passed on June 24, 2008, while resolution to condemn the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India and Pakistan was passed unanimously on December 24,2008 by Lower House of the Parliament. Besides legislation, the National Assembly saved Rs 38,43,11,000 last year through austerity measures - an amount that was surrendered during the financial year 2007-08.
For the first time, National Assembly's Question Hour was telecast live while provision of facilities for live telecast of proceedings of the House by electronic media is under process. A total of 13 sessions of the National Assembly were held while as many as four joint-sittings of the Parliament were arranged till to date.
An in-camera joint session of the Parliament was held from October 8 to 22, 2008 for 10 days and at the end of discussions, a 14-point unanimous resolution on national security was passed by the House. A joint parliamentary committee on security issues was also formed to periodically review, provide guidelines and monitor the implementation of the principles framed and the road-map given in the resolution referred to above.
There was a joint sitting with a one point agenda: Presentation of Aghaze Haqooq-e-Balochistan on November 24, 2009, and Mian Raza Rabani, presented the package. President, Asif Ali Zardari addressed joint-sitting of the parliament on September 20, 2008. President Zardari addressed Parliament the second time on 28 March, 2009. A total of 34 ordinances were tabled during the last session of the National Assembly, which was held in November 2009.

Read Comments