PESHAWAR: The overall attendance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly remained better than that of the Punjab Assembly during the preceding parliamentary year but it fell behind the Balochistan and Sindh assemblies due to the disinterest of members.
The average attendance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was recorded at 36 members per sitting or 29 per cent of the house’s total strength, which is 124, according to a study conducted by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat).
The study revealed that attendance in the Punjab Assembly was recorded 23 per cent, while the ratio of attendance in the Balochistan Assembly remained on top with 58 per cent followed by Sindh Assembly 42 per cent during the preceding year.
“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly also witnessed long delays at the start of proceedings compared to other provincial assemblies with an average delay of 72 minutes.
The other provincial assemblies have witnessed shorter average delays ranging from 41.20 minutes in the Balochistan Assembly to 56.96 minutes in the Sindh Assembly,” according to the highlights of the 36-page report.
It also pointed out the order of discipline in the house. It said the deputy speaker had resigned from the post on October 15, 2014, which was still vacant. It quoted Rules 9 and 10 that the house was incomplete without the deputy speaker office and therefore, the deputy speaker’s position had to be filled on a priority basis.
Speaker Asad Qaisar told Dawn that the prime objective of the assembly was legislation and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had made record legislations during the last two years.
He said the overall performance of the assembly was far better than other three provincial assemblies.
Asad Qaisar was of the view that MPAs remained busy in the local government elections that might be one of the reasons in decline of attendance.
He said the filling of the deputy speaker’s office was a political issue and therefore, only the government could respond to it.
The speaker admitted that the delay at the start of the proceedings was an issue that would be addressed during the current year.
The report indicates that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who is leader of the house and also parliamentary leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), is also losing interest in the assembly.
He was present only for 20 out 58 total sittings or 34 per cent of the total sittings compared to his presence in 31 out of 72 sittings during the first parliamentary year of the incumbent assembly.
On the contrary, opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl attended 52 per cent of the total sittings.
The report says the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly also suffered from lack of interest by MPAs, which is evident from significant drop in the number of questions submitted between the two years.
In the first parliamentary year, 1997 questions were submitted to the secretariat, while in the second year, the number dropped to 826 showing 59 per cent decrease.
The report said a significant number of questions received could not be discussed in the house during the second year due to adjournment days and little interest on part of the movers.
“This shows a declining interest among MPAs regarding issues of public concern,” said Pildat.
On the other hand total working hours of the budget also decreased by a whopping 49 per cent and only 18 hours were spent on the entire budget session.
The study noted that like other provincial assemblies the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly did not consider any of the required reforms in providing a meaningful role to the MPAs and standing committees in the budget scrutiny. It suggested that the budget session be extended to 30-45 days in order to allow MPAs and committees to thoroughly discuss the expenditures and identify potential weaknesses.
“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly received an overall score of 44 per cent in the evaluation of its performance during the second parliamentary year against the Evaluation Framework developed by Inter-Parliamentary Union,” said the report.
Making comparison with the first parliamentary year May 2013 to May 2014, the number of sessions decreased from 12 to three in the preceding year showing 75 per cent decline. A total of 37 bills were passed in the second year compared to 28 bills in the first year.
A total of sittings decreased from 72 to 58 in the second year while working hours increased by 109 per cent compared to first year.
Another positive sign is that the government laid 16 ordinances in the first parliamentary year while total seven ordinances were introduced in the house in second year. Only one private member’s bill was passed compared to two private members’ in the first year.
The Pildat suggested introduction of a ‘Zero Hour’ after the question hour in a sitting to discuss matters of public concern.
It also recommended that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly follow the example of the Punjab Assembly and put the attendance record of MPAs online for public access.
Highlighting strategic analysis, the report said the greatest issues of the people of the province were inflation, energy crises, poverty, unemployment, corruption and security.
“Inflation was perceived to be the greatest issue facing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the year 2013-14. However, it was never proactively discussed by the MPAs, and only indirectly referred to during the budget debate. The remaining five issues were debated in some form or the other by legislators,” it said.
Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2015
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