National security, political instability, civil-military relations, executive-judiciary tension, and the energy crisis largely defined the agenda for the 13th National Assembly during its fourth parliamentary year that ended on March 16, 2012. The year was particularly tumultuous for Pakistan as well as for the legislature in terms of agenda-setting that was difficult and critical.
The ongoing energy crisis with its usual symptoms of shortages and rising prices of fuel and electricity led to public agitations across the country during the year, causing loss of life, and damage to property and businesses. Debate regarding Pakistan’s role in the war on terror, and its implications on national sovereignty in terms of respecting international borders began anew after the killing of Osama bin Laden in a covert American operation close to the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad, and the deaths of Pakistani soldiers in a NATO air raid on a border post in Mohmand Agency. The Memogate scandal in
November 2011 brought the executive-military confrontation to its peak, culminating in the resignation of the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, a move seen in some circles as proof of the military’s overbearing intrusion in national politics. Furthermore, the adoption of the 20th Amendment, validating the election of 28 lawmakers previously suspended by the Supreme Court in response to the judicial verdict declaring all bye-elections held after the adoption of the 18th Constitutional Amendment unconstitutional in April 2010 brought the executive judiciary tension to a head.
The response by the Lower House to the above mentioned issues (among others) was swift and categorical in most cases, e.g. 343 parliamentary interventions were taken in response to gas and electricity outages and increasing tariffs. However, its actions were not matched by the executive in terms of their enforcement, deepening a public perception of parliamentary ineffectiveness. Various instances of political unanimity between the treasury and the opposition were observed throughout the fourth parliamentary year in terms of items brought on the Agenda; although low in percentage, 6% of all Agenda was moved by Members belonging to various parties. The opposition and the treasury benches in collaboration sponsored two Resolutions, 11 Calling Attention Notices and one Private Members’ Bill. In addition, the passage of the federal budget 2011-12, important legislations such as the 20th Constitutional Amendment and the adoption of Resolutions on matters of national security and democracy etc. took place through collaborations between the various political parties as well.
The passage of two landmark pro-women legislations also took place through consensus. These bills on preventing acid crime and protecting women’s rights, including the right to inherit property, are additionally significant because they were moved by female Private Members. The Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2010 (earlier tabled as the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill 2010) was passed on May 2011, while the Prevention of Anti- Women Practices Bill 2011 was passed in November 2011.
On the other hand, despite consensus, the timeliness of parliamentary actions differed across issues as the legislation of acid throwing, for example, took a year and six months in its passage, unlike the 20th Amendment Act that was passed in a day.
Further instances of consensus are the passage of two treasury sponsored bills; the National Assembly Commission on the Status of Women Bill 2012 for promoting social, economic, political and legal rights of women and the Women in Distress and Detention Fund (Amendment) Bill 2010. Another interesting alliance developed among the women legislators belonging to all parliamentary groups when they introduced the Political Parties Order (Amendment) Bill in the 38th session, with clauses for ensuring at least minimum levels of representation of women in all political parties.
Bipartisanship was also observed between the opposition and the coalition legislators against treasury backed Agenda. Members belonging to PMLN and MQM jointly submitted a Resolution in the 30th session opposing the Income Tax Ordinance that the treasury was contemplating to introduce in an effort to reform the General Sales Tax mechanisms. The Resolution was never introduced as the government agreed to withdraw the Bill.
Enhanced capacity of political organization to negotiate and navigate is evident in light of the above disposal of Agenda through consensus whether it was sponsored by the treasury or the opposition. However, the approval of Agenda on issues of public importance remained time consuming.
The political fragmentation and growing differences might have distanced the political stakeholders throughout the year, but the treasury and the opposition parties took unanimous positions on critical matters such as the annual budget for the 2011-2012, United States’ increased pressure on
Pakistan for doing more against extremism, role of military in politics and legitimization of Members elected in by-elections declared unconstitutional by the country’s apex court.
The diverse political ideologies manifested by 10 parliamentary parties sitting on both sides of the aisle also mediated reconciliation on issues that had the potential of disrupting the democratic process such as the memogate controversy when it passed a pro-democracy Resolution endorsed by all political parties otherwise at loggerheads.
While Pakistan’s security and political parties’ institutional interest inspired unanimous and urgent parliamentary actions, issues of public interest such as weak governance, institutional corruption, unemployment and increasing poverty remained on the backburner and low on the Assembly’s priorities. Political unanimity dwindled on matters of public importance with 83 of 107 bills appearing on the Agenda during fourth year are still pending, 69 of 77 Resolutions on the agenda were not taken up, 21 of 122 Calling Attention Notices were not taken up, 612 of 2,545 Questions were not answered and one of five Adjournment Motions was not debated.
The unattended Agenda of the Lower House largely focused on issues that are relevant to public wellbeing such as employment, public health and growing inflation. The Charter of Child Rights Bill, the Pakistan Food Security Bill and the Senior Citizens Welfare Bill were some of the Private Member’s Bills that were not taken up by the House. Similarly, 11 Resolutions on energy-related issues, 10 on health and five on education, remained unaddressed. The House also did not take up seven Calling Attention Notices on the energy related issues, three on Pakistan Railways and one on Pakistan International Airlines.
Balochistan related issues, such as the lack of security in the province, widespread sectarian violence, missing persons and the alleged human rights abuses were another challenge for the House. In August 2011 the National Assembly decided to send an All-Party Special Committee to Karachi and Balochistan to investigate the incidents of violence in both areas; however the 17- Member committee failed to meet regularly. In October 2011, joined by other parliamentarians, an MNA from Balochistan affiliated with the PPPP staged a sit-in outside the National Assembly entrance against sectarian killings in the province. In February 2012, the House passed a Resolution condemning a US congressional hearing; ironically highlighting the same issues in the province brought to the public’s attention by both the local media and elected representatives; terming it an interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs.
Issues of other federating units were also reflected in the Agenda throughput the year, such as demands for new provinces fueled by a lack of administrative outreach and effective delivery of social services, as well as socio-economic and ethno-linguistic factors. MQM Members introduced a Private Member Bill in the 38th session calling for the creation of two new provinces; South Punjab and Hazara, traditionally strongholds of the PPPP and PMLN respectively, with next to no MQM presence. The Karachi centered party’s championing of the erstwhile Sooba Hazara province movement (begun afresh after the post-18th amendment renaming of KP) coincided with ongoing MQM-ANP tensions in the provincial capital, while the support for South Punjab province is reflective of the traditional alliance between the PPPP and the MQM; the former being the main campaigner for its creation; as well as possible vote-bank expansion.
Despite the various important Assembly outputs delivered during the year, the National Assembly only attended to 40% of the Agenda items on the Orders of the Day for a variety of reasons. The foremost of these is lack of sessions; the Assembly met for only 103 days (in 11 sessions) throughout the year, less than the constitutionally mandatory 130 days (see Article 54(2) of the Constitution of Pakistan). In addition, the average duration of these sittings was far too low at less than three hours to effectively dispose of Agenda. Furthermore, erroneous usage of procedural functions in the regulatory framework also led to mismanagement of time, and hence low disposal of Agenda.
The legislators raised Points of Order (officially to be used exclusively to indicate any violation in conduct of business of the House) mostly to speak on various issues that consumed 5,358 minutes (31%) of the total time otherwise allocated to formal agenda. A total of 219 Members raised 1,275 Points of Order during the parliamentary year. The Members generally raised more than one issue through a single Point of Order.
According to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, the Chair can allot the last half an hour of any sitting, except Friday, to raise a matter which is not a Point of Order. Legally, the time allocated for matters which are not Points of Order for 103 sittings during the year should not have exceeded 3,090 minutes (51 hours and 30 minutes). However, 1,275 Points of Order consumed 89 hours and 18 minutes extra, otherwise assigned for disbursement of regular Agenda.
Apart from the duration of sittings and optimum usage of allotted time, the legislators’ interest and potential for delivering effective outputs in line with mandates is manifested through their presence and participation in the Assembly, across gender, party and region. Attendance of Members of political parties and key figures such as the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and the Speaker, as well as Agenda items brought to represent the public, respond to matters of public interest, and oversee the performance of the executive are the indicators through which the MPs commitment can be judged.
Public perception of being a friendly opposition was put to rest by PMLN Members by providing extensive executive oversight through raising 68% of all Questions during the year, most of which were directed towards the Cabinet Secretariat, and the Ministries of Finance and Revenue, and Petroleum and Natural Resources. On the other hand, nine of the party’s total 90 Members in the Assembly did not participate in the proceedings at all during the year. It was however, the ruling party with the most number of non-participating Members (24) relative to total strength in the House (124). On this count, the MQM was the only parliamentary party all of whose Members participated in the Assembly’s proceedings throughout the year.
The interest of a sizable proportion (17%) of Members remained generally low in the proceedings of the
Lower House, as 60 of a total of 349 Members (seven by-elections were during the fourth year) belonging to seven parties did not participate in any Parliamentary business throughout the year. Among them were
13 women and 47 men – 24 belonging to PPPP, 14 to PML, nine to PMLN, five to ANP, two to PMLF and one each to MMAP and NPP. Four Independent Members also completely abstained from participating in any Assembly business throughout the year.
Prominent non-participating Members were Nazar Muhammad Gondal, former Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture; Ghulam Farid Kathia, former State Minister for Education; Jam Mir Muhammad Yousaf, former Chief Minister of Balochistan; Rana Asif Tauseef, former State Minister for Privatization; Mrs Zubaida Jalal, former Federal Minister for Education in the 12th National Assembly; and Ghulam Murtaza
Khan Jatoi, Parliamentary Leader of NPP. Another indicator of Members’ interest is their attendance. On average 74 Members were present at the beginning and 80 at the adjournment of each sitting which was less than the 1/4th of the total Membership (86 Members) required for meeting Quorum. Though the Quorum was visibly lacking, it was not pointed out throughout the year.
A gender-wise analysis of the fourth year places women Members ahead of their male counterparts in terms of participation in various parliamentary businesses. Sixty-five or 86% of 77 women parliamentarians accounted for more than half of the Agenda conducted during the year. In comparison, male Members, who constitute 77% of the National Assembly, seemed less active in asserting and raising public voices.
In terms of provincial disaggregation of Member participation, 23% Members belonging to general and reserved seats from KP did not participate in the proceedings through the year. The highest representation came from FATA with all of its 11 Members contributing to the assembly proceedings.
Similarly, all minority Members participated in the proceedings.
Although the executive’s responsiveness to the Assembly remained weak as 22% of all Questions were unaddressed, ministerial presence in the House improved compared to the third parliamentary year – perhaps mainly because of the Prime Minister maintaining his tradition of attending Assembly sittings regularly by being present in 83 out of 103 sittings throughout the year.
On the other hand, his counterpart from the PMLN, the Leader of the Opposition, could only make it to 43 sittings. Conspicuous, however, has been the absence of the Speaker of the National Assembly, who did not chair 57% of the sittings, although she might be conducting official business in her chambers. The Deputy Speaker chaired 81% of the sittings.
For complete report click here
