15th NA only met for 24 hours in a month

PILDAT notes house held 12 sittings in its 41 session

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) has observed that in nearly a month-long session of the 15th National Assembly only met for 24 hours and 10 minutes with an average time of two hours and three minutes per sitting.

The average delay in starting a sitting was 38 minutes.

Elaborating further, the think tank noted that the NA held 12 sittings in its 41 session held on March 25, March 28, March 31, April 3, April 9, April 10, April 11, April 16, April 18, April 19, April 20 and April 21.

The tumultuous 41st session of the 15th NA that began on March 25 and ended on April 21 witnessed the first-ever successful vote of no-confidence in the country's parliamentary history through which ex-premier Imran Khan lost the confidence of the House by 174 votes an hour past midnight on Sunday, April 10.

Only two previous prime ministers have faced a vote of no-confidence against them in the NA's history: Benazir Bhutto in 1989 and Shaukat Aziz in 2006. The vote of no-trust against them were unsuccessful. PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the prime minister on April 11 by securing 174 votes.

Pildat further noted that 60.80% agenda items on average were left over in 12 sittings of the 41st session.

Notably, on March 31, out of 24 agenda items, only one of them was taken up and no discussion was held on vote of no-confidence resolution -- this was the shortest sitting of the session which lasted only 10 minutes.

On April 11, the NA completed the whole agenda of electing the prime minister. The maximum agenda items were left over on April 19 stood at 203 (98.54%) out of 206.

In the last sitting of the 41st session, the House completed the whole agenda including election of the deputy speaker as well as his oath-taking.

Quorum was not pointed out during the entire 41st session of the 15th National Assembly

PM Shehbaz attended two of the six sittings of the NA -- held on April 11 and April 16.

He remained the leader of the opposition in the NA till April 10 and attended all six sittings held on March 25, March 28, March 31, April 3, April 9 and April 10.

Former PM Imran did not attend any sitting of the NA held during the 41st session.

On an average, 223 or 65.08% MNAs marked their attendance during the 41st session.

Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi of the PTI was the most vocal MNA during the 41st session with a recorded talk time of one hour and 30 minutes. PM Shehbaz spoke for one hour and 19 minutes during the session. He was followed by PML-N’s Khawaja Asif, who spoke for 52 minutes during the session. Asad Mahmood of the MMAP spoke for 42 minutes and former human rights minister of the PTI Shireen Mazari spoke for 38 minutes.

Only one government bill was introduced during the whole session -- the Constitution (26th Amendment) Bill, 2022. No bill was introduced by private members. Neither was any bill was passed by the NA during the session, nor any ordinance laid or extended.