NA performed better under Imran Khan as compared to PM Shehbaz: report

ISLAMABAD: The performance of 15th National Assembly has registered a stark decline in its fourth parliamentary year, falling short in terms of legislation as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif failed to provide leadership and direction to the legislation process. 

As the 15th National Assembly concluded fourth Parliamentary year, an analysis of the performance carried out by PILDAT based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) has revealed that eight-month period of the National Assembly under Prime Ministership of Mr. Imran Khan was different from the same period under Shehbaz Sharif.

Per the release, legislative business witnessed a decrease of eight 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 four years of 15th and 14th National Assembly, the 15th National Assembly has passed 155 bills in the fourth year period while the 14th National Assembly had passed 125 bills in its first four years. The 15th National Assembly has therefore passed 24% more laws in the same period compared to the previous Assembly.

During the fourth year of the Assembly, 32 government bills were introduced compared to 31 bills introduced in the third year while Private Members introduced only 46 bills which is a decline from third year when 74 bills were introduced.

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. A slight decrease is seen in the number of ordinances laid by the Government in the National Assembly during its fourth year compared to the third year.

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 20%.

15th National Assembly of Pakistan has only met for 87 days in the fourth parliamentary year. The Assembly has met for 10% 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. This is an 11% decrease in the performance of the 15th National Assembly compared to the 14th National Assembly.

Regarding working hours, in its fourth year, the 15 th National Assembly has met for 178 hours and one 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 average working hours of the 15th National Assembly in four years are 258 hours and 15 minutes. Instead of improvement in performance and productivity, 15th National Assembly has worked for 12% fewer working hours compared to the previous (14th) National Assembly.

15th National Assembly could not dispose of nearly 41% of planned agenda items in 87 sittings, which is a bulk of the agenda by any standard. On average, 58.87% agenda items were left over in the sittings during fourth year of the Assembly.

During the fourth year, average attendance of MNAs was recorded at 67% until April 9, 2022. After the PTI tenure, average attendance of MNAs during 4th year dropped to 51% which is 14 percentage points lower than the attendance of MNAs during the third year which was 65%.

Average attendance of MNAs in first four years of the 15th National Assembly stands at 63%, an improvement of only three percentage points over 60% average attendance of MNAs per year during the first 4 years of the previous 14th National Assembly.

Even after the resignations of PTI MNAs, the attendance is calculated on the basis of full house, i.e., 342 MNAs as their resignations are not accepted officially.

During the fourth year of the National Assembly, Mr. Imran Khan, MNA attended only one  sitting (1.14%) of the Assembly while he held the office of Prime Minister. He attended a total of 34 or 11% 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.

Mr. Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, MNA, remained Leader of the Opposition till April 10, 2022, and in that capacity, attended 43% (19 out of 43) sittings of the Assembly in its fourth year. This was an improvement from his 13% attendance during the third year of the 15 th National Assembly.

Raja Riaz Ahmad, MNA, who was declared as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly on May 20, 2022, has attended 35% (13 out of 37) sittings of the National Assembly during the fourth year.

During the fourth year of the 15 th National Assembly, Quorum was pointed out 34 times in 28 (32.18%) sittings out of 87 sittings. Out of these 28 sittings in which quorum was pointed out, 23 (26.44%) sittings were adjourned, even though on average 173 MNAs were recorded as present in the fourth year.

During the tenure of PTI government (3 years and 8 months) in the 15 th National Assembly, Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, MNA, PPPP was the most vocal MNA with a recorded talk time of one hour and 59 minutes. Mr. Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, MNA, PML-N and then Leader of the Opposition spoke for one hour and 57 minutes, followed by Khawaja Muhammad Asif, MNA, PML-N who spoke for one hour and 27 minutes. Mr. Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary, MNA, PML-N spoke for one hour and 11 minutes while Ms. Shazia Marri, MNA, PPPP spoke for 51 minutes.

During this period in the House of 342 members, 174 (50.88% MNAs) did not speak for a single minute in the Assembly. Out of these 174 non-vocal MNAs, 149 were male and 25 were women MNAs. 84 of these MNAs (22% of the House) belong to the PTI, 48 MNAs are of the PML-N and 23 are affiliated with the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP).

The fourth year of the 15th National Assembly has seen just 14 days for the annual budget session and the passage of the Finance bill 2022-2023, two days less than what was spent during the third year.

15th National Assembly has seen a sharp decrease (56%) of working hours from 102 hours and 27 minutes to 45 hours and 7 minutes in the total time spent during the budget session during the fourth year.