ISLAMABAD: During the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government - three years and eight months - in the 15th National Assembly, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari of the PPPP was the most vocal lawmaker with a recorded talk time of one hour and 59 minutes, according to a Pildat analysis.

Then leader of the opposition Shehbaz Sharif of the PML-N got the second position in speaking for one hour and 57 minutes followed by Khawaja Mohammad Asif of the PML-N who spoke for one hour and 27 minutes.

Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary of PML-N, Shazia Marri of the PPPP got fifth and sixth position, respectively.

During this period in the house of 342 members, 174 members did not speak for a single minute in the assembly. Out of these, 149 were male and 25 female. Eighty-four of these MNAs belonged to the PTI, 48 to the PML-N and 23 were affiliated with the PPPP.

Legislative activity witnessed a decrease of 8pc in the fourth year of the 15th National Assembly as it passed 55 laws compared to 60 bills passed during the third year of the assembly. The house passed 24pc more laws in the same period compared to the previous assembly.

The Pildat comparative analysis also looks at how the three years and eight months period of the National Assembly under the prime ministership of Imran Khan was different from the same period in the 14th National Assembly.

The 15th National Assembly passed 155 bills in the four-year period while the 14th National Assembly passed 125 bills in its first four years. During the fourth year of the assembly, 32 government bills were introduced compared to 31 in the third year while private members introduced only 46 bills which was a decline from third year when 74 bills were introduced.

Excessive reliance on issuing ordinances was witnessed during four years of the 15th National Assembly through seventy-four ordinances laid in the assembly. A slight decrease was seen in the number of ordinances laid by the government in the house in its fourth year compared to the third year.

As many as 16 ordinances were laid in the assembly in the fourth year compared to 20 during the third year which is a decrease of about 20pc.

The incumbent assembly has only met for 87 days in the fourth parliamentary year. It has met for 10 per cent more days than it was convened during its third year which were 79 sittings. However, on average, the assembly met for 88 working days per year in its first four years in comparison with an average of 99 working days per year in the previous assembly.

This is an 11pc decrease in the performance of the 15th National Assembly compared to the 14th National Assembly.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2022