Year one

The 16th National Assembly convened for fewer working days and recorded fewer working hours in its first year compared to its predecessor, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) reported in its annual analysis of the first-year performance of the new assembly. Despite this decline, the report noted a surge in legislative activity, with many key bills passed without thorough scrutiny and deliberation by members of the National Assembly (MNAs). The report said that the legislative output of the 16th NA was significantly higher, with 47 bills passed in its first year — a staggering 370 per cent increase compared to the 10 bills passed during the first year of the 15th NA. However, this heightened legislative activity includes some contentious legislation and according to the Pildat report, “several laws [including some important ones] were hurried for passage without review by MNAs and without being referred to relevant Standing Committees”. The report also said that the attendance of MNAs has also declined to an average of 66 per cent in the first year of the 16th NA down from 73 per cent in the first year of the 15th NA. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif only attended 17 sittings out of the total 93 sittings or joined only 18 per cent of the total sittings. Sharif’s record is consistent with the attendance of former PM Imran Khan who had attended only 18 out of 96 or 19 per cent of sittings in the first year of the 15th NA.

In any democratic country, parliament has the most crucial role to play because of debates on important issues, legislation and much more. This is why we say parliament is supreme over many things but when parliamentarians do not take their work seriously, it reflects poorly on democracy. From passing contentious legislation without much debate to passing bills without even going through them, from passing bills without sending them to the standing committees to not attending enough sessions, the priorities of our parliamentarians is there for all to see.

We have seen Pakistan’s global rankings go down in almost every index there is – human rights to democracy to corruption perception to media freedoms – and this is not surprising given the attitude of those elected [or selected]. The 16th NA is already quite controversial due to the February 8, 2024, general elections and the rigging allegations related to it. When those who still made it to the assembly show little or no respect to legislation or parliamentary debates, which is why they were elected in the first place – to represent their people – they must be made accountable and answerable.

This issue is not just related to a hybrid regime. We have seen poor performance of parliamentarians in the past as well but with each passing year, the respect for parliament is going down. And its credibility as well. To restore parliament’s relevance and credibility, our parliamentarians must make an effort to attend as many sessions as possible, read up on the legislation they are voting for or against, table laws that are important for the people and not vote for anti-people and anti-rights laws. This assembly’s record is abysmal as it has made laws detrimental to freedom of expression and human rights. We hope the regime will now focus its energies on some pro-people legislation.