Senate role

The Senate made a strong case for its abolition during the previous parliamentary year, while the government made little effort to hide its disdain for the upper house. A new government report shows that the Senate met for just 161 hours during the parliamentary year that ended earlier this month. Although parliamentary recordkeeping counts this as 110 working days, in reality, it was just 56 sittings, as breaks of up to two days are counted towards the sessions.

We must also remind that many senators do not show up for every session. Even if a senator attended every minute of proceedings, it would only equate to 20 days of work for normal nine-to-five workers. Meanwhile, even when senators did bother to show up, the government could not care less about their work. Almost three-quarters of questions asked of the government by senators went unanswered, and while Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has not commented on this, we have low expectations of him holding anyone accountable given that he is a firm government ally. Further illustrating the lack of credence the government gives the Senate is the fact that not a single piece of legislation originated from the treasury benches of the upper house in the entire year.

For decades, critics of the Senate have pointed out how the indirectly elected body operates unaccountably, with most senators being selected on the basis of party loyalty or, even worse, party donations. Yes, there have been a few intellectual giants in the Senate, along with several others who did take their jobs seriously, but that does not make up for the vast majority that just happen to be major party donors who are paying in for an honorific next to their names, or politicians who were rejected by voters in direct elections being ‘compensated’. A better model may be seen in the US, where senators are directly elected. This increases the need for the government to work hand-in-hand with the opposition as the two houses may be in control of different parties, and also makes senators accountable to voters, rather than party bosses.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2022.

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