A Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) Score card on the performance of the 14th National Assembly's third Parliamentary year shows the overall performance of the Lower House has declined by five percentage points at 43 percent from 48 percent in the second parliamentary year. The performance, when compared with five years average of the 13th (previous) National Assembly, which stood at 49 percent, has also declined.
Accountability has consistently been the weakest area of the National Assembly in 2015-2016 (at 32 percent) as well as in previous years. As per the Rules of Procedure, the sole authority to oversee conduct of Members of National Assembly (MNA) in the House lies with the Speaker of the National Assembly, who can, at his/her discretion, suspend an MNA or adjourn a sitting. Pildat strongly recommends that the National Assembly develops and enforces a Code of Conduct for members, which has long been overdue. While MNAs file Statements of Assets and Liabilities with the ECP, recent events such as the leaks of the Panama Papers make it clear that this is insufficient to make MNAs accountable to citizens. PILDAT advocates increasing the power of the Parliament itself to hold MNAs accountable. This would be done through the introduction of Conflict of Interest provisions.
It recommends that MNAs declare all financial interests that may potentially create a Conflict of Interest between their duties as legislators and their personal interests in a Register of Members' Financial Interests. No substantive work in Parliament can be done without the active participation of MNAs. The attendance of MNAs in 2015-2016 was recorded at 61 percent of the membership: with 206 of 340 members being present on average per sitting. However, over the 103 sittings this year, quorum was lacking 17 times indicating that while MNAs may have attended the House but many only have stayed long enough to mark their attendance and not actually join the complete proceedings.
Most disappointing perhaps was the attendance of the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, MNA, who attended only 10 percent of the sittings in 2015-2016. His attendance is worse in comparison with the previous year when he attended 36 percent of sittings. Fortunately, he did manage to attend more sittings in the National Assembly than the Senate of Pakistan where he made his presence known only once.
In the wake of the Panama Leaks scandal that engulfed the country and dominated the final session of the National Assembly, the Opposition resorted to boycotting proceedings till the Prime Minister arrived to answer their questions. One of Parliamentary leaders heading the protest against the PM was none other than Imran Khan, MNA, (NA-56, Punjab, PTI), who had an even more abysmal attendance record than the PM with five percent attendance for the year.
The remaining parliamentary leaders had better records: Iftikhar ud Din, MNA (NA-32, KP, APML), had the highest attendance at 85 percent. Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah impressed with 73 percent attendance. For adequately representing the citizens of Pakistan, the National Assembly received a score of 50 percent. The Oversight of the Executive in 2015-2016 received a score of 44 percent. The Public Accounts Committee along with its sub-committees led by the Leader of the Opposition, Syed Khursheed Shah, MNA (NA-199, Sindh, PPPP) met 118 times this year: 30 percent more than the previous year when it met 91 times. Meanwhile, Standing Committees met on average for 13 sittings each. The Standing Committee on the Cabinet Secretariat was most active in 2015-2016 with 38 meetings of the Committee and its sub-committees under its belt. The least active Committee was the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, led by Mian Abdul Manan, MNA (NA-83, Punjab, PML-N) that met only five times.
No significant strides were made in the financial oversight either. On June 03, 2016, Senator Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister, is due to address the House through the customary budget speech. As is the norm, within 2-3 weeks the budget session will be wrapped up and the Federal Budget 2015-2016 will be passed with the usual lack of scrutiny. In June 2015 the National Assembly discussed the budget for only 15 sittings. In comparison, the Indian Lok Sabha discussed its 2016 budget for 31 sittings over 87 working days.
The National Assembly received its highest score of 51 percent for its legislative capacity in 2015-2016. The legislature saw an active membership that laid 42 Private Members' Bills: up from a significant 62 percent in the previous year when 26 bills had been laid. Despite this important achievement of the legislators, a worrying trend of the passage of hasty legislation was witnessed. The 22nd Constitutional Amendment that redefined the selection process of the Chief Election Commissioner and members of the ECP was tabled and passed on the same day on May 19.-PR