Performance of the parliament of Pakistan was evaluated at 44 percent in an evaluation by parliamentarians and others, the Pakistan Institute Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) said on Thursday. The performance evaluation was facilitated by PILDAT using an international framework on evaluating performance of parliament, developed by International Parliamentary Union. The evaluation scores were shared by PILDAT in a roundtable discussion on performance of parliament.
Federal Minister for Law Maula Buksh Chandio, who was the chief guest at the roundtable, believed that repeated military interventions were responsible for stunted growth of democratic institutions.
Chandio said the performance of parliament reflected combined performance of the treasury and opposition benches. “The PPP is proud of the fact that for the first time, the chairmanship of PAC and other standing committees was given to the opposition members. Parliament’s biggest achievement is to have revived the 1973 constitution in its original shape. The 18th Amendment has strengthened the federation through giving powers to the provinces. The defence budget was presented in greater detail,” he said, admitting that peoples’ problems remained but could only be addressed through an uninterrupted system of democracy.
The transparency and accessibility of the National Assembly scored the highest, 54 percent on the PILDAT score card on the performance of parliament.
Two aspects of the performance of the Senate, namely the transparency and accessibility of the Senate and representativeness of the Senate scored the highest, 53 percent.
The weakest aspect of the National Assembly’s performance was evaluated to be effectiveness its involvement in foreign policy, which got a score of 33 percent. Similarly, the weakest aspect of the performance of the Senate was also its involvement in foreign policy, which got a score of 34 percent.
The evaluators included five senators and 11 MNAs, while 15 others included journalists covering the proceedings of parliament, analysts and other citizens and one representative of the parliamentary staff.
Senator Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, leader of the house in Senate, believed that after devolution, the legislative business was far less at the federal level as many ministries had been devolved to the provinces. He said political forces believed in law and all constitutional departments had to work in their ambit. Zahid Hamid appreciated PILDAT on behalf of the leader of opposition in National Assembly for compiling a comprehensive report. He said that the significance and magnitude of success of Public Accounts Committee was not highlighted as it should have been in the report. He said the PAC recovered Rs 115.3 billion in three years.
Syed Zafar Ali Shah believed that while evaluating parliament, its powers should be kept in mind. For instance, resolutions of parliament were not legally binding on the executive.
Syed Aftab Shaban Merani said the beauty of democracy was that all citizens could agree to disagree. Humayun Saifullah Khan believed that a true federation should not have a concurrent list. Fiscal deficit should be defined as a certain ratio of GDP instead of “prudent limits”.
