46th NA session: ‘PM Shehbaz did not attend single sitting’

ISLAMABAD: The 46th session of National Assembly, which lasted for 41 days, spent only one-and-a-half hour on discussing policy issues while the lawmakers consumed 18 hours and 40 minutes on discussion of non-policy issues.

It was stated by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) - an independent think tank focusing on strengthening democracy in Pakistan - in its analysis of 46th session of National Assembly, which began on November 03 and was prorogued on December 13, 2022 after 15 sittings. The maximum time - 36 minutes - consumed in discussing policy issues was on a bill titled “The Foreign Investment (Promotion and Protection) (Amendment) Bill, 2022. On the other hand, the house spent 1 hour and 59 minutes and 1 hour and 21 minutes on discussing non-policy issues, including criticism on PTI leadership with regard to long march and road blockages in Punjab as well as firing incident on PTI rally in Wazirabad.

According to PILDAT, a policy issue involves any amendment in a bill or a recommendation on devising a policy while any discussion on an issue that does not go beyond mere criticism or highlighting a concern does not fall into policy issue category and is treated as discussion or time spent on non-policy issues.

According to PILDAT analysis, the 46th session met for 27 hours and 4 minutes with an average time of 1 hour and 48 minutes per sitting. The longest sitting of the session lasted for 3 hours and 43 minutes on December 12, 2022, while the average delay in starting a sitting recorded as 51 minutes during the session.

On average, 69.41 percent agenda items were left over during the 46th session and the National Assembly could dispose only 30.59 percent of its agenda items in 15 sittings. Lack of quorum was pointed out only in three or 20 percent out of 15 sittings during the session.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif did not attend a single sitting throughout the session while Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Raja Riaz Ahmad attended only 3 or 20 percent sittings held on November 10, November 24 and December 13.

On average, 103 or 31.14 percent MNAs marked their attendance during the 46th session. Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, MNA (NA-1 Chitral-I, KP, MMAP) was the most vocal MNA during the 46th session with a recorded talk time of 1 hour and 36 minutes. Noor Alam Khan, spoke for 35 minutes during the session, followed by Mohsin Dawar (30 minutes), Choudhary Faqir Ahmad (25 minutes) and Aliya Kamran (24 minutes). During the 46th session, the National Assembly passed eight bills. Of them, four government bills and two private members’ bills were introduced in the National Assembly while two private members’ bills were transmitted from the Senate. No ordinance was laid during the session while one ordinance the Tax laws (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 (Ord. No. VI) was extended during the session.