The sovereign parliament

Parliamentarians need to not only turn up for sessions, they also need to actively engage

Awhile ago, I took a group of students to the National Assembly of Pakistan. It was the first time the students were going to attend a session — they were going to witness first-hand, the law-making and debate process by our chosen representatives. However, what transpired there caused them to ask me to leave within the first 15 minutes. The students saw a session of the National Assembly where there was extremely thin attendance — hardly 25 parliamentarians were present, and out of those present, most were chatting and disinterested in the proceedings. The finance minister was present (the prime minister had come in for about 10 minutes just before we had arrived), but he was busy talking to a group, while a young parliamentarian, smartly dressed, was earnestly making a speech on the budget.

From our vantage point, we could only see one woman legislator take interest in the speech, but it seemed that she knew the speaker well and was more likely a mother figure for the young parliamentarian. The lack of seriousness, the casual atmosphere, the lack of engagement and debate, and the general disinterest, dampened the excitement of the students. Having been to parliament several times, I knew that this parliamentary session was not unique. For anyone with access to information about the work of the parliament, it is clear that most legislators simply do not care to turn up, let alone adequately debate and vet legislation. For example, on August 5, 2015, the National Assembly began its session with only 28 members — eight per cent of the house, present. On a day when three bills were passed, the assembly saw a maximum of 172 legislators — just about 50 per cent of the membership, and that too for a short time. In the recent session, the average attendance hovered around 20-25 per cent of the house — a very dismal record indeed. How can our legislators debate and create legislation when they simply don’t turn up?

The recent judgment of the Supreme Court on constitutional amendments is important in many respects, but one of its most critical aspects is an emphasis on the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. The majority opinion rejected the ‘basic structure’ theory, championed by the Indian Supreme Court, and reiterated the sovereign right of parliament to amend the Constitution. This right, a basic in common law, has had a long history. Parliamentary sovereignty emerged in the wake of a long struggle over power, between parliament and the monarch in Britain, and was crystallised in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution in 1688, when the concept of the ‘King in Parliament’ being ‘Sovereign’, was developed. The later Act of Settlement in 1701 regulated who could become the realm’s monarch. These events put parliament at centre stage in the evolving democracy. With parliament being the only directly elected part of government (with the slow and steady supremacy of the House of Commons being established), its role in legislation and governance was taken seriously and its level of debate, discussion and revision of legislation became iconic for the rest of the world. No prime minister, or even a minister, can even imagine sidelining parliament or risk not turning up for months, or parliamentarians not turning up for a session. Such a dereliction of duty would be simply betraying the trust of the people, and UK parliamentarians know it.

Pakistan is still a nascent democracy and, therefore, it is all the more imperative that parliament take up its central role and not leave its duty to the executive or the military. Parliamentarians need to not only turn up for sessions, they also need to actively listen to their colleagues, engage in debate, improve and revise legislation, and tackle issues of national concern. This work needs to be backed up with robust committee work, where a professional business outlook needs to be adopted. In his first speech to the first legislature of the country, the Quaid-e-Azam very rightly noted on the role of parliament: “Remember that you are now a sovereign legislative body and you have got all the powers. It, therefore, places on you the gravest responsibility as to how you should take your decisions.” Let our current parliamentarians not lose sight of such a grave responsibility. Let parliament not betray the authority and the trust that people have reposed in it.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2015.

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