Legislative agenda unimpeded by Covid-19

Despite grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, parliament managed to have a considerably successful legislative year in 2020. As many as 36 bills, including the Zainab Alert and Financial Action Task Force compliance bills, become acts of parliament in the outgoing year. In addition to them, the legislature also passed 14 ordinances and 20 resolutions.

While the coronavirus did disrupt parliamentary proceedings during initial days of the first wave – sessions of both the National Assembly and Senate were suspended for over two months and the parliament had to be closed several times – its impact was not as severe as expected.

Parliamentary authorities were quick to enforce necessary SOPs, barring entry of officers from unauthorised divisions and allowing only limited staff in, to keep business going. As such, parliament was able to take up several important matters, such as Covid-19 itself, the flour and sugar crisis, rising inflation and the Karachi air crash during the year 2020.

The National Assembly conducted ten meetings between January and October, taking up and passing 101 bills, 40 of which concerned government business. Of the 36 bills that sailed through and became acts of parliament, bills to concerning the tenure of the three services’ chiefs, money laundering and anti-terrorism were some of the more notable ones.

President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi also addressed the Majlis-e-Shura in 2020 and the parliament held three joint sessions, including one called in honour of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

That said, the government and opposition continued to trade bitter rhetoric throughout the year. Speeches delivered by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif, federal minister Murad Saeed and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Abdul Qadir Patel and Agha Rafiullah escalated tensions in the parliament. In fact, acrimony between Rafiullah and the deputy speaker intensified to such a level that the former’s entry into parliament was banned. Leader of Opposition Shehbaz Sharif was also forced to skip the budget session due to his detention.

Although he dedicated significant attention to the opposition, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser was unable to win the confidence of key government ally Akhtar Mengal. The latter would go on to part his ways with the government. Despite repeated efforts, the speaker was also unable to hold discussions with parliamentary leaders on important national issues, like Gilgit-Baltistan’s status.