JUI-F woman MNA tops NA performance: Pildat

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) has released a scorecard of the members National Assembly for the year 2015-16 to evaluate their seriousness for legislative business.

As per this scorecard, Naeema Kishwer of Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam (F) stands winner with 70% score and Pildat has declared her as MNA of the year.  Faryal Talpur of the Pakistan People's Party and sister to party’s co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari is among the lowest with Imran Khan and Hamza Shehbaz Sharif with overall score of 20% and 39th position.

It is interesting to note that 9 out of 14 MNAs, occupying the top 10 ranks as per this scorecard, are women and all of them belong to the category of reserved seats for women in the National Assembly. 

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) bags highest percentage (100%) of top performing MNAs among top 15 positions while 23% top performing MNAs were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa based on performance indicators of individual MNAs during third parliamentary year (June 2015-May 2016) with overall average performance score of MNAs stands at 38% compared to average performance score of senators at 41%.

Senior Deputy Convenor MQM Pakistan Dr Farooq Sattar attained an overall score of 22% and 38th position (second last rank). Similarly, former Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza also attained an overall score of 22%. 

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali attained an overall score of 27%, which is the 35th position. PML Punjab President and former Chief Minister, Punjab, Ch Pervaiz Elahi also attained an overall score of 27% while JUI-F President and Parliamentary Leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman attained an overall score of 35% which is the 30th position. Mehmood Khan Achakzai attained an overall score of 36% with 29th position which is also shared by PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed of Awami Muslim League attained an overall score of 39% and 26th position alongside Shafqat Mehmood of the PTI. 

As many as 308 MNAs have attained ranks or positions between 1 and 39. The prime minister, speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, federal ministers, ministers of state and leader of the opposition have not been included in the assessment exercise as their powers and functions differ greatly from that of a regular member of the National Assembly, Pildt said.

The performance scorecards by Pildat focused on three main aspects of the parliamentary role of an MNA oversight, legislation and representation. All top performers of the three categories are women parliamentarians.

Following MNAs have attained top 10 ranks: Naeema Kishwar of JUI-F with 70% overall score, Muhammad Muzammil Qureshi of MQM from NA-253 Karachi with 67% score, Sher Akbar Khan of JI from NA-28 Bunair with 65% score, Dr Nikhat Shakeel Khan of MQM with 63% score, Shahida Rehmani of PPP with 63% score, Aisha of JI from KP with 62% score, Dr Shazia Sobia of PPP with 60% score, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah of JI from NA-33 Upper Dir-cum-Lower Dir with 60% score, Mian Abdul Manan of PML-N from NA-83 Faisalabad with 59% score, Tahira Aurangzeb of PML-N with 59% score, Dr Nafisa Shah of PPP with 57% score, Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqub of JI from NA-34 Lower Dir with 56% score, Khalida Mansoor of PML-N with 55% score, Munaza Hassan of PTI with 55% overall score.