As water and power czar, Ashraf was the most sought after minister in NA
Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s ministry received 1,147 questions, answered 60% of them.
During his tenure as federal minister for water and power, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was one of the top five sought after ministers in the National Assembly – by legislators who wanted answers to the chronic power crisis.
Ashraf, however, could not answer 40% of the questions put to his ministry, according to a report on the parliamentary performance of the new premier released by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) on Saturday.
“Raja’s performance as Federal Minister for Water and Power has been tainted by failures to overcome the power shortfall that continued to aggravate even after he was replaced,” the assessment report said.
“His actions and responses inside and outside the National Assembly have not been translated into actions,” the report added.
Stints as minister
Ashraf served as a federal minister for almost 36 months of his 51-month tenure as a member of the 13th National Assembly. Between March, 2008 and February, 2011, he held the portfolio of minister of water and power. He made a comeback to the cabinet in April 2012 as minister for information technology. Between the two tenures as federal minister, he acted as a member for almost 15 months, but did not contribute to the assembly proceedings during that period.
Calling attention notices
As minister for water and power, Ashraf provided replies to 29 of the 45 calling attention notices, the report by Fafen said.
In one of the replies on unscheduled power outages in 2008, Ashraf told the house that there was no difference in ‘load-shedding schedules’ for cities and villages. Replying to another notice, he informed the house that a committee had been formed to look into overbilling and the reasons for increase in power tariff. In 2010, he told the house that the power shortages had decreased and shared plans to add 1,000 megawatts of electricity by 2011.
Question hour
As the energy crisis worsened, the parliamentarians asked a total of 1,147 questions from the Ministry of Water and Power during the period when Raja Ashraf was in-charge. The ministry provided answers to almost 700, or 60%, of the questions, of which almost 400 required oral replies and 300 required written replies. The ministry did not respond to 443 questions.
Ashraf became the minister for information technology in 2012 but had a quiet time as his ministry provided answer to only two questions and one Calling Attention Notice.
Ashraf became the minister for information technology in 2012 but had a quiet time as his ministry provided answer to only two questions and one Calling Attention Notice.
Legislation
As the water and power minister, Ashraf moved two treasury-backed bills. The Alternative Energy Development Board Bill 2010 was passed while the Private Power and Infrastructure Board Bill 2010 was introduced and sent to the respective Standing Committee. It was later passed in 2011.
Points of order
On ten points of order, Raja Ashraf defended the government’s performance once, and twice spoke on the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He expressed his views on budget once, and he replied to the opposition’s criticism against one of his party colleagues at another instance. On three occasions, he offered condolences, and also paid tributes to late Nusrat Bhutto.
Published In The Express Tribune, June 24th, 2012.