Marked by national security challenges, post-election disputes and strained civil-military relations, the first parliamentary year of the 14th National Assembly, which ended on May 28, 2014, saw the passage of only 11 treasury-backed bills.

Following the country’s first-ever democratic transition of power, the National Assembly had to respond to 1 public concerns over prevailing multi-pronged issues of governance. Meeting for 99 sittings , the National Assembly’s focus remained on bills pertaining to judicial commissions, banking and amendments in the Anti- Terrorism Act 1997.

In the event of continuing insurgency and sectarian violence as well as the change in leadership of neighbouring countries, the re-haul of internal and external security policy was expected among the major tasks the PML-N government would perform. The House passed only three relevant bills during the year– the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2014, the Anti-Terrorism (Second Amendment) Bill 2014, and the Protection of Pakistan Bill 2013.

The second amendment in the Anti-Terrorism Act sought to counter terrorism financing and address
shortcomings highlighted in the original act by the international body – the Financial Action Task Force. On the other hand, the remaining two bills faced vehement opposition due to clauses pertaining to powers given to the security forces to detain suspects for up to 90 days without disclosure of their location.
Other treasury-backed legislations pertained to repeal of an obsolete bill, and for the most part, were amendments in existing laws dealing with government institutions, such as the Law and Justice Commission, bar councils and services tribunals. No private members’ bill was passed during the year. However, 45 bills were introduced in the House. Moreover, 26 Standing Committee reports were also presented, including three quarterly reports and one annual report on the performance of the economy; two monitoring reports on the implementation of NFC award as well as others on federal accounts and audits etc.
In terms of attendance and participation reflecting the interest of members in the House proceedings, 89% of the total membership of 341 took part in the sessions by submitting agenda items, taking part in debates, or both, while the remaining 11% members did not participate in the sessions in any way.

Among single member parties, members of AJIP, APML, AMLP, and NP submitted agenda items and participated in the debates, while those of BNP-A, PML-Z, and QWP only took part in the debates. Similarly, all four members of JI participated in the sessions by submitting agenda items as well as taking part in the debates.

Attendance of parliamentary leaders varied during the year as the PkMAP leader was present in 60 out of 99 sittings, followed by JI (59), QWP (46), AMLP (42), APML (40), PML-Z and ANP (34 each), PML-F (30), MQM (21), JUI-F (15) and PTI and PML (11 each). Moreover, two sittings each were attended by leaders of NPP, BNP, AJIP and NP.

The Prime Minister was present in only seven sittings, while the Leader of the Opposition was present in 75. The Speaker presided over 59% of total time, whereas Deputy Speaker chaired 26% of the time during the year. The remaining 7% of the time was chaired by members of the Panel of Chairpersons.

The National Assembly adopted 56 out of 110 resolutions moved on the floor. Thirty-four resolutions appeared on the Orders of the Day, while the remaining were submitted as supplementary agenda in light of national and international events as they occurred, such as the attack on the Quaid’s residency in Ziarat, terrorist attacks on Bolan Medical College and Hospital Complex in Quetta and the death of Nelson Mandela.

Eighteen adopted resolutions were jointly sponsored by members of various political parties. Through these resolutions, the House condemned the attacks on the Quaid’s residency, Bolan Medical College, All Saints Church in Peshawar, drone attacks, Indian aggression on the Line of Control (LoC), the execution of Abdul Qadir Molla in Bangladesh and the use of force on civilians by Egyptian security forces.

The parliamentarians moved 67 motions under Rule 259, of which 16 were debated on the floor for nearly 54 hours while the remaining were not taken up. Thirty-nine lawmakers (22 male and 17 female) from PMLN, PPPP, PTI, MQM, JUI-F and JI sponsored these motions.

The House suspended regular agenda on 17 occasions which comprised mostly the question hour and calling attention notices. The regular agenda was suspended 15 times as discussion on several issues brought to the floor through motions under Rule 259 was to be held instead. Business was suspended for 12 hours in six sittings of the sixth session to discuss drone attacks in North Waziristan. Similarly, it was suspended in two sittings each during the fourth, fifth, and ninth sessions to discuss Indian aggression on the Line of Control, attack on the All Saints Church in Peshawar and the National Internal Security Policy 2014-2018 respectively.

Regular agenda was suspended in another sitting during the ninth session to discuss the attack on district courts in Islamabad as well as in one sitting each during the 10th and 11th sessions to discuss law and order and load shedding respectively. In addition, the House suspended regular agenda during the seventh session to pay tribute to South African politician and philanthropist Nelson Mandela, and on another occasion due to lack of quorum.

The lawmakers submitted 104 calling attention notices (CANs) and 4,561 questions during the year. PML-N legislators were most active in holding the government accountable, sponsoring 37 calling attention notices and submitting 1,344 (29%) questions.

Of the 104 CANs, 32 dealt with governance issues such as adulteration in eatable items, hidden charges by mobile companies, demolition of slums in Islamabad, delay in issuance of passports and delay in appointments in various departments. Sixteen CANs inquired about the increase in electricity and gas load shedding, nonpayment to independent power plants (IPPs), lack of grid stations at various places in the country, overloaded transformers resulting in power outages, increased petroleum prices in addition to electricity and gas tariffs besides delays in work on different hydro-power projects.

Health issues such as increase in polio and tuberculosis cases, costly lifesaving drugs, shortage of medicines, infant mortality rate, non-utilization of anti-hepatitis vaccines and increased use of drugs were raised through 15 CANs. Members raised 11 CANs regarding delay in construction of motorways, expressways and bridges and on areas where no development work had been carried out. Five notices were related to educational matters, such as reduction in funds for educational institutions, admission quota and closure of institutes due to non-availability of funds. CANs related to floods, deforestation, industrial wastes, extra-judicial killings and incidents of terrorism were also raised in the House. The ministries responded to all the CANs taken up during the year.

Most of the questions during the question hour were directed to the Cabinet Secretariat (14%); followed by Ministries of Interior and Narcotics Control (11%); Water and Power (11%); Petroleum and Natural Resources (10%) and Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization (9%) among others.

During the year, the House met for 355 hours and 13 minutes. On average, each session started at least 32 minutes behind the schedule and met for 32 hours and 17 minutes. Additionally, breaks were observed in almost every session, except for the first and third sessions, which consumed 30 hours and 52 minutes (8% of the total duration).

The members raised an average of 10 points of orders (POs) per sitting that consumed 19% of the total duration. The lawmakers raised 1,080 issues through 966 POs related to rules of business (25%); democracy and political development (16%); good governance (14%) and law and order (14%) among others.

The parliamentarians spoke 365 times on 396 issues using Rule 18 to raise issues that were not POs. These comprised good governance (17%), rules of business (14%), terrorism (9%), law and order (8%) and improved foreign relations (8%) among others.

A total of 31 walkouts, five boycotts, three protests and two joint walkouts/boycotts were witnessed during the year. The opposition parties jointly staged eleven walkouts, three boycotts, two protests, and a joint walkout/boycott. With the exception of MQM and JI, the opposition benches boycotted two sittings over the alleged non-parliamentary remarks of the interior minister. Similarly, the opposition staged walkouts against the Pakistan Protection Ordinance, drone attacks and alleged rigging of elections.

MQM members jointly and/or individually staged walkouts/protest and boycotts during the year, mostly regarding the law and order situation in Karachi and against harassment of its members. PPPP staged four walkouts jointly and/or individually on Karachi’s law and order situation, increase in General Sales Tax, schedule of presidential elections and partiality of elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. PTI members also staged walkouts while airing their disappointment against the government’s performance on various national issues and on-floor business.

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