Countdown of National Assembly begins

PML-N govt passed a total of 164 pieces of legislation in its five-year term

ISLAMABAD: The countdown to one of the most legislatively successful terms of National Assembly of Pakistan has started with only 20 parliamentary days remaining and 164 successful legislations to its credit.

The tenure of the current National Assembly is about to end on May 31, which means that there are just 90 days left followed by a caretaker setup before the general elections.

The President of Pakistan has already summoned the National Assembly’s session on April 10 at 5pm in the Parliament House. According to sources in the National Assembly’s secretariat, it is expected that it would be the second last session of the lower house of parliament which would run for a week.

The budget session of the National Assembly would be called which is expected to run till May 15 to May 16 and would possibly signal the end of the parliamentary year of the current legislature.



The current National Assembly has passed 164 bills and several bills which were passed during the joint sitting of both houses of parliament.

The parliamentary year of the National Assembly consists of 130 days starting from June 1 of the calendar year. The session of the lower house of parliament is called on even Saturdays and Sundays in the parliamentary days when generally there is no sitting of the house.

The current National Assembly had started its business by passing the Finance Bill 2013 soon after the general election which was held on May 11, 2013 and hopefully it will finish its business by passing the budget for Financial Year 2018-19.

A total of 198 private members’ bills were presented before the assembly as well as 35 ordinances laid. The assembly has twice passed legislation with a two-thirds majority to provide constitutional cover to army courts in the country. It had amended the Constitution in 2017 to give legal cover to the army courts for swift trials of terrorists for another two years.



According to sources in the National Assembly Secretariat the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led government had successfully legislated over 145 bills in the National Assembly including the 18th Amendment during its term from 2008 to 2013.

The current assembly has made more legislation than the past assembly and with 20 more parliamentary days left which means it can do more business in at least two of its remaining sessions before the end of its term.