- Senator Col (r) Tahir Mushhadi of MQM comes first, Dar stands on last position
- Sassi Palijo attains first position among women senators with a score of 51pc
The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) issued its systematic “Assessment of Individual Parliamentary Performance of Senators of Pakistan during 13th Parliamentary Year of Senate (March 12, 2015-March 11, 2016)”.
The report assesses the performance of individual Senators in order to foster transparency and greater democratic accountability in the country and to help in the mapping exercise of the future political leadership of Pakistan.
According to the assessment report, Senator Colonel (r) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (Sindh, Muttahida Qaumi Movement) tops the list with 95 per cent overall score. Senator Muhammad Usman Kakar (Balochistan, Pashtunkwa Milli Awami Party) is on second position with 76 per cent overall score. Senator Saeed Ghani (Sindh, Pakistan People’s Party) and Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed (Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid) both grab the third position with 73 per cent overall score. Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood (KP, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam- Fazl) with 68 per cent overall score comes on fourth position while Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak (KP, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) and Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini (Balochistan National Party- Mengal) jointly bag fifth position with 66 per cent overall score.
Among women senators, Senator Sassui Palijo (Sindh, PPP) scores first position with overall rank of 13 and overall score of 51 per cent. On second position comes Senator Sitara Ayaz (KP, Awami National Party) with an overall rank of 15 and overall score of 50 per cent. Senator Nuzhat Sadiq (Punjab, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) comes on third position among women senators with an overall rank of 21 and overall score of 43 per cent. Senator Sehar Kamran (Sindh, PPP) is on fourth position with an overall rank of 22 and overall score of 42 per cent. Senator Gul Bashra (Balochistan, PMAP) bags fifth position among women senators with an overall rank of 23 and overall score of 41 per cent.
The assessment also sheds light on the performance of Federal Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar in his capacity of being a member of Senate. Dar, elected from Punjab on PML-N’s ticket, stands at the 40th position (last rank) with an overall score of 20 per cent.
The other two government senators, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed (Punjab, PML-N) attained a score of 27 per cent, which is the 36 position and Senator Kamran Michael (Punjab, PML-N) follows suit with a score of 24 per cent, which is the 37 position.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed of PML-Q emerges as the top performer in legislation with a total of 9 private member’s bills introduced of which eight were passed in the Senate during the year.
The PPP has the highest number of top performing senators. In order to gauge this result, the top 15 positions or ranks were checked for each political party. The PPP has four of its elected leadership in the Senate among the top 15 position holders namely, Senator Saeed Ghani (Sindh, PPP), Senator Aitzaz Ahsan (Sindh, PPPP), Senator Farhatullah Babar (KP, PPP) and Senator Sassui Palijo (Sindh, PPP).
The assessment also notes that the average attendance of Senators in committee meetings is 51 per cent and average attendance in plenary sessions of the Senate is 63.3 per cent (compared to 61 per cent in the National Assembly).
The report states that its key objectives are the assessment of performance of Senators and to provide citizens of Pakistan with objective and analytical information about their political leaders’ performance in order to make informed choices at the time of election.