Lawmakers largely ignore issues facing the common man

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The 14th National Assembly, during its third parliamentary year, ignored the issues of public interest, from skyrocketing electricity tariff to missing health and education facilities for the middle and poor classes while governance was also not adequately addressed by the House.

Data compiled by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) registered some improvement on a number of indicators, including participation of members, punctuality in timings and its output in terms of legislation and resolutions as compared to the second parliamentary year.

Issues of political instability, terrorism, natural calamities, civil-military relations, corruption and accountability featured more in assembly’s business interventions.

The third parliamentary year was heavy on legislation as the lower house of parliament passed 59 legislations, including two constitutional amendments as compared to only 16 legislations passed during the second parliamentary year. The legislations focused on issues concerning elections, economy and security.

In the earlier part of the parliamentary year, the report of the judicial commission on the 2013 general elections relieved pressure from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government as well as the National Assembly by validating the election results.

However, the House had to address new challenges soon, including de-seating of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers and Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, resignations by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) members from parliament and incidents of child abuse in Kasur.

In later months of the year, the natural disasters, energy crisis, incidents of terrorism, privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines, corruption cases against politicians and Panama Leaks about offshore businesses of Pakistanis, including the family of the prime minister, defined the agenda of the House.

The National Assembly offered timely responses to some of the above situations while ignored several others. The legislation gained pace during the year but the discussions on the motions under Rule 259 subsided. The members were deprived of the opportunity to bring adjournment motions on the burning issues of public importance due to continued appearance of ‘motion of thanks’ on the presidential address for more than six months. The assembly could not entertain, legally speaking, any adjournment motion when motion of thanks is on the agenda.

Nearly 25 per cent of the agenda mostly concerning the issues of public importance like electricity tariffs, missing health facilities and poor governance went unaddressed. A total of 647 agenda items appeared on the orders of the day during 99 sittings of the third year. The National Assembly attended to 70 per cent of these parliamentary interventions while three per cent agenda had to be dropped due to the absence of relevant members and two per cent was pending either in the House or in the committees.

A gender-wise analysis of the agenda reveals that 70 women lawmakers who constitute 20 per cent of the House accounted for 47 per cent agenda alone while they also co-sponsored two per cent additional agenda with their male counterparts. The male lawmakers, who make up 80 per cent of the National Assembly, moved only 51 per cent agendas.

The participation of lawmakers in the House business registered an upward trend from last year but is still below the benchmark set in the first year. Eighty-eight per cent members participated in the proceedings during first year; the number fell to 76 per cent in the second year while 86 per cent lawmakers remained active during this year.

Besides legislation, the National Assembly showed marked improvement in terms of punctuality as well. The long delay in the start of proceedings was a norm previously. However, the average delay was reduced from 35 minutes in the previous year to 14 minutes in third year. The improvement might be a result of a similar change in the Senate which had seen a number of reforms since Mian Raza Rabbani became its chairman.

Inspired by the recent amendments in the Senate, the lawmakers in the lower house tried to replicate the same in the National Assembly also. A motion was brought to make provisions for the prime minister’s question-hour, public petitions and other such reforms in the assembly’s rules of procedure. However, it was struck down due to treasury’s rejection.

The matters of public importance and human rights drew little attention of the treasury which was more focused on economy and political issues. However, the private members tried to bring these issues under the spotlight of legislature using different parliamentary interventions.

They moved 25 bills on issues related to the rights of minorities and special persons, women empowerment, labour reforms, speedy justice and transparency in public offices. In response to the child abuse cases in Kasur, the government also moved a bill criminalising child pornography and abuse. The House also adopted three resolutions to condemn the violence against women, highlight minorities’ rights and declare Holi, Dewali and Easter as public holidays.

The lawmakers also submitted motions under Rule 259 to discuss the employment opportunities for women, provision of expeditious justice and social welfare programmes but these were not taken up by the House.

Through calling-attention notices, the members highlighted the concerns on increasing mother and child mortality rates, closure of Benazir Income Support Programme for women office in Upper Dir, discrimination against women in provision of development funds and mechanisms for welfare of orphan children.