43% of legislators’ time spent non-productively

Quorum was regularly far below the constitutional requirement.

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly spent 43 per cent of its third parliamentary year on non-productive activities, according to the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen).

According to its annual appraisal report released on Tuesday, Fafen said that the lower house met 109 times in the year ending March 12, but the major chunk of its 348 hours was spent on non-agenda items such as points of order, breaks, protests, etc. Each meeting lasted three hours and 12 minutes on average and proceedings were suspended for 28 hours and nine minutes for prayers and lunch breaks.

Attendance, it says, was also far below the constitutional requirement. On average, 72 members were present at the beginning and 80 at the adjournment of each sitting. At least 86 of 342 members are required.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani attended 97 sessions and was among those with the highest attendance. Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan turned up for only 48 sessions. On average, Gilani attended each sitting for 47 minutes while Khan attended each sitting for 31 minutes.

The speaker was not present during 38 sessions whereas the deputy speaker skipped 24. The speaker chaired 36 per cent of the sessions, deputy speaker presided over 38 per cent and the remaining were chaired by members of the panel of chairpersons.

It was a better year in terms of passing of laws as, besides the 18th and 19th amendments, the assembly passed 29 of 94 bills put on the agenda.

Of the 30 government bills passed, one half was new pieces of legislation and the other was amendment bills for the approved laws.

The number of questions posted by members decreased from 3,732 during the second parliamentary year to 3,339 in the third year. Participation of women members was higher than men.

There were 59 protests, boycotts and walkouts by the members this year.

The parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao – a single-member parliamentary party – attended most sessions, being present at 84 occasions. The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) parliamentary leader was present at 38 sessions, PML-Functional’s leader was present in 36, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s leader was present in 27, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s was present in 23, Awami National Party’s leader was present in 18 and that of National Peoples Party only attended two sittings.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2011.