Punjab CM worst performer in attending assembly sessions by attending just one of Punjab assembly’s 62 sittings
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly outperformed other provincial assemblies in the country during parliamentary year 2014-15, scoring 44 per cent for its overall performance on a Comparative Score Card compiled by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT).
The report did not include performance of Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly.
The KP Assembly was closely followed by the provincial assemblies of Sindh and Punjab, who share second spot with a score of 42% each. Balochistan was the weakest with just 39%.
In terms of number of government bills passed, Sindh outdid the other three provincial assemblies with 41 bills passed this year. Even so, this number was down by 14% from last year. KP Assembly, however, showed the greatest improvement for year-on-year it government bills, passing 37 bills this year, compared to 28 in 2013-14, with an increase of 32%. Punjab Assembly too passed 37 government bills this year, but it only had a year-on-year improvement of around 19%. The Balochistan Assembly lagged far behind the other three assemblies as it passed just 16 government bills this year, 36% less than the previous year. It also scored the lowest on the legislative performance ladder, with the score of just 38%.
The KP Assembly took lead in the private members’ bills category, which stood at five for the 2014-15, followed by four in Sindh. Provincial assemblies of both Balochistan and Punjab failed to pass a single private members’ bill.
According to the PILDAT scorecard, the KP Assembly scored 45% on Legislative Capacity followed by Punjab and Sindh with scores of 44% and 43%, respectively. Balochistan was again last with a score of just 38%.
With regards to the total number of actual sittings of the Provincial Assemblies for parliamentary year 2014-15, the KP Assembly again took the lead with 133 sittings, followed by Sindh and Punjab with 63 and 62 sittings, respectively. The Balochistan assembly only met for 47 sittings this year.
In terms of average working hours per each sitting for the second parliamentary year of the assemblies, Sindh Assembly led with an average of 3.1 hours per sitting, followed by Punjab Assembly with an average of 2.63 hours per sitting while the provincial Assembly of K-P was third with an average of two hours per sitting.
Balochistan Assembly’s performance was the weakest for this parameter with the average of just 1.57 hours spent per sitting.
Interestingly, the provincial Assembly of Balochistan fared best among all the provincial assemblies with average attendance, which stood at 32.73 per sitting, which translates into 50% of the total members of the assembly. Sindh Assembly stood second with an average peak attendance of 74.36 per sitting (45% of the total membership).
Meanwhile attendance in Punjab was lowest at an average of 84.12 peak attendance (23% of total membership).
Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch scored 70% for attending assembly sittings. Qaim Ali Shah of Sindh was second on the list, having attended 44% of 63 Sindh Assembly sittings in 2014-15. KP CM Pervez Khattak was present in only 19% of assembly sittings. For the second consecutive year, Punjab Chief Minister was the worst performer in this regard, attending just one of Punjab assembly’s 62 sittings.
Provincial assemblies of KP and Sindh scored the highest on Transparency and Accessibility, with both receiving scores of 45%, followed by Punjab who received a marginally lower score of 44%. The Balochistan Assembly received the lowest score in this parameter with just 41%.
For the second year running, members of Punjab Assembly submitted the highest numbers of questions with a total of 2,554 questions submitted. The government responded to 45% of the questions asked. MPAs in Sindh submitted 1,558 Questions, of which 36% were answered by the government.
The high number of questions from both assemblies reflects the engagement of the members in debating subjects. In comparison, members of Balochistan Assembly asked merely 57 questions, of which 95% were answered.
Meanwhile, the KP government, who have championed the right to information law to boost transparency, responded to only 23% of the 826 questions asked by MPAs.
