Stranger in the House

Even after becoming Prime Minster, Imran Khan’s distaste for parliament persists. When in opposition, Khan would stay away from the ‘fake’ parliament; and now when a ‘public-mandated’ parliament is in place, his presence there is as rare — even though he is the leader of the directly-elected lower house of the same parliament. Just days after swearing in as Prime Minister, Khan had promised his availability in the National Assembly for a ‘Prime Minister Hour’ on a fortnightly basis to answer questions from elected public representatives, especially those from the opposition benches. However, this promise remains unfulfilled, just as most of the others he had made.

For a Prime Minister, Khan perhaps has the worst attendance performance. His May 9^th appearance in the National Assembly was his seventh since his election as Prime Minister on August 17, 2018 and had come after a gap of two months and 10 days, according to the official record of the National Assembly Secretariat. And during the 64 sittings of the house since its inaugural session on August 13, 2018, Khan was only present in 10. He was last seen in the assembly on February 28 during a joint session of parliament convened to discuss India’s aggression against Pakistan in the aftermath of the February 14^th Pulwama attack.

A parliamentarian is supposed to know the rules, procedures and nature of proceedings inside the assembly halls. Still there are those who do not even know how to frame a question or a resolution, or what the question hour is. While those new to parliament can be excused, they are required to go through the learning curve by ensuring their presence in the House as much as possible. Unfortunately, all that is being emphasised in the context of an absentee member of the National Assembly, is none other the prime minister of the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2019.

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