March 29; PILDAT has released an analysis of the 5-years of 13th National Assembly of Pakistan, terming it a combination of positive trends and lingering areas of concern.

The 13th National Assembly of Pakistan completed its 5 years term on March 16, 2013. It stood dissolved under Article-52 of the Constitution on the expiration of its five years term. This is a landmark development in the history of Pakistan that a democratically elected Assembly, under a civilian, democratically-elected President, has completed its tenure for the first time.

The 13th National Assembly of Pakistan has also performed significantly better compared to the 12th National Assembly (2002-2007). However, weak oversight of the Assembly on crucial areas such as national security and alleged systemic corruption and incompetence remain as key areas of concern.

Positive Trends

Following can be termed as encouraging trends that have had a positive impact on the working of the 13th National Assembly of Pakistan:

1. The Assembly laid the foundation of many important firsts; it was for the first time that a tradition of committee chairpersonship, based on party representation in the House, was put in place. This ensured that not only the ruling PPP and its coalition partners were elected to chair Standing Committees but also opposition MNAs were elected as chairs of Standing Committees of the Assembly in proportion to their representation.

2. Similarly, the appointment of the Leader of the Opposition as head of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for the first time in Pakistan in the 13th National Assembly was celebrated as a major positive step towards deepening democracy.
   
   However, as a somewhat negative development, the maiden trend set-up by the current Parliament to have opposition chair the PAC could not continue as the Chairman PAC, Leader of the Opposition, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, MNA (NA-53 Rawalpindi-IV, Punjab, PML-N) had resigned from the PAC Chairmanship in November 2011. Despite the reported insistence of the Government, combined opposition declined to propose a new chairman from the ranks of opposition after which the ruling PPP appointed Mr. Nadeem Afzal Gondal, MNA, (NA-64 Sargodha-I, Punjab, PPPP) as the new Chairman PAC in April 2012. The PAC continued its examination of federal government audited accounts through reports by the Auditor General, and prepared recommendations and analysis on government expenditure. In five years, the PAC published and issued 13 reports and cleared a backlog of the past 10 years and claimed to have recovered Rs. 115 billion.

3. The Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS), formed on November 08, 2008 through a Joint Resolution of the House, remained another one of the effective Committees during the past five years. The unanimous passage of 14-point recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security by the Parliament marked the beginning of an oft-demanded Parliamentary overview and ownership of Pakistan�s foreign policy. In the traditional foreign policy realm of Pakistan, Parliament and Parliamentary bodies have had little influence,^[1] if any. While the Government did not entirely follow Parliament�s recommendations on restructuring Pak-US relations, major thrust of Parliamentary resolution, the facilitation of this review and the unanimous approval of these recommendations indicated the Government�s maturity and due regard to the institution of Parliament which has set an exemplary traditions of Parliamentary oversight of governmental policies.

4. After the 1973 Parliament, which had the honour of passing the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, the 13th National Assembly has unanimously passed the largest number of bills during its five year terms. Most of the bills were passed with consensus. While the outgoing Government deserves appreciation as it did not bulldoze legislation through the House, the opposition should also be applauded for playing a positive and constructive role in bringing major changes in the 1973 constitution and for positively contributing to key legislation.

5. During the 13th National Assembly, the Constitution of Pakistan saw major changes in the shape of the 18th Constitutional Amendment. As a result of the Amendment, 97 Articles (out of a total 280) of the Constitution were amended. The Amendment restored the Parliamentary character of the Constitution, which was subverted during military rules. Furthermore, Parliament and Provincial Assemblies were strengthened, fundamental rights were reinforced and personal discretion of the executive was minimized. An across-the-board consensus was reached regarding some of the most divisive issues such as provincial autonomy.

6. The 19th Constitutional Amendment, which was also passed with bi-partisan consensus, introduced a new way to appoint Judges in the superior Judiciary.

7. The passage of the 20th amendment paved the way for a consensus appointment of caretaker governments in the centre and the provinces to oversee future polls. The Government and the Opposition agreed on a �system of reaching consensus� on the appointment for the caretaker governments in the centre and the provinces in the 20th Amendment to the Constitution which was passed unanimously by the Parliament. The term of ECP members was also fixed at five years through the 20th Amendment.

8. Even though control over the purse strings is one of the most crucial powers of elected representatives, 5 budget sessions in the National Assembly have passed without reforms to allow for meaningful input of members and Standing Committees in the budget process. Towards the tail end of the term of the Assembly, however, an amendment has finally been passed, after considerable bipartisan reform efforts by PILDAT over the years, through which Standing Committees in the National Assembly will have the power to scrutinise Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) proposals of relevant ministries before these are made part of the Federal Budget.

9. For the first time in the National Assembly�s history, the Assembly began its journey of greater transparency and public access by providing key information about the Assembly sittings and proceedings to the media and public through its website. The National Assembly�s new website now carries the Orders of the Day (Daily Agenda of the Sittings), details of the Legislative Business and the Questions-Answers of the Question Hour. The detail provided, however, needs to be further improved keeping in view the Parliamentary openness and transparency standards in the South Asian region and worldwide.

10. A staff canteen and Parliamentarians� cafeteria have also been renovated and made operational in the National Assembly. Contrary to the negative publicity that the Parliament cafeteria provides exceptionally low and subsidized rates of food for MPs, the cafeteria provides food on reasonable rates and its major clientele includes over 1000 members of staff of the Parliament as well as constituents who travel to meet their representatives from far-flung constituencies of Pakistan. Under an arrangement with the Parliament, the caterers running the cafeteria do not have to pay bills of electricity and gas usage and in return provide food on subsidized rates.

Areas of Concern

Following is an account of trends in which the National Assembly has not been able to adequately play its due role. These remain the lingering areas of concern which have negatively impacted on the 13th National Assembly:

1. Apart from some historic achievements during its five year term, the 13th National Assembly remained unsuccessful in providing workable recommendations on resolving Pakistan�s key issues including terrorism, law and order situations in Balochistan, Karachi and FATA, and growing sectarianism. Regardless of the severity of these issues, the Assembly�s response never moved beyond expressing sorrow.

2. Even though the ruling PPP and the PML-N had pledged under the Charter of Democracy (CoD) of May 2006 to replace what they termed as �politically motivated� National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by a consensus-based Accountability Commission, accountability of public officials remained a cause of serious concern as the Government and Opposition remained unable to reach a consensus on an effective and comprehensive accountability law in 5 years.

3. Despite the continuity and maturity of democracy, achieved through a large part by the continuation of the term of the Parliament, the performance of democracy, also known as governance, remained dismal in 5 years. Over the course of these five years, challenges in Governance have transformed into crises. There have been palpable failures in the domain of Economy, control of corruption, maintenance of peace and order in the society and provision of speedy justice to the citizens in which National Assembly remained unable to play an effective oversight role. There have been charges of corruption on Cabinet members while the state of Economy is worse than in 2008.

4. Even though good trend of giving committee chairpersonship to opposition parties was established, a system could not be evolved in which only subject-specialists and persons most suited to chair committees could be elected. The most important committee of the Assembly, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, remained almost entirely dormant under the chairmanship of Mr. Asfandyar Wali Khan (MNA, NA-7, Charsadda I, ANP) who hardly ever convened meetings of the committee. As a result, the committee failed to play its due role. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Defense also failed to play an effective role and this was part of the reason that a special Parliamentary Committee on National Security had to be formed.

5. Dr. Fehmida Mirza, MNA (NA-225, Badin-cum-Tando Muhammad Khan-II, Sindh: PPPP), whose election as the first-ever Woman Speaker of the National Assembly was lauded, failed to maintain a balance in effectively discharging her responsibilities as the custodian of the House. With the exception of setting up a Woman�s Caucus that she took great pride in, that also led many to question if she only preferred to be the Speaker for female members, in the views of many members, she has not left behind a trail blazing legacy many expected from a woman Speaker. Her ill-health, unfortunately, kept her away from most of her professional responsibilities during the last year of the term.
   
   While newspaper records carry details of what is termed as a much-deprecated and undue package of life-time of perks and privileges she reportedly got approved for herself and preceding and forthcoming Speakers from the House Finance Committee, ^[2] it is also understood that she resisted the approval of the package of perks and privileges of Presiding Officers and MNAs until the end even though the Finance Act 2010 allowed the Finance Committee of the House to approve a package of perks. Also, reportedly, the package approved by the Finance Committee for National Assembly Presiding Officers is lower than the one approved for Senate Chairmen. (PILDAT has sought comparative details of both packages)

6. Yet another term later, the National Assembly failed to provide for office space and research assistants, both for individual MNAs as well as Standing Committees. Pakistan suffers from being one of the very few countries where elected representatives continue to work unassisted without office space and assistance. Committees, which are considered the work horses of Parliament, work without committee room suites. Only committee chairs are provided with office space for themselves which is also not part of the main Parliament House. The elected leadership at the helm of affairs of the National Assembly failed to prioritise once again as it sanctioned the construction of extension of the Parliamentary lodges instead of constructing an office block for Standing Committees even though the office block was to cost less in comparison to extension of the lodges.

7. For all the improvements in the 13th National Assembly on providing greater public access to Assembly�s work, it has remained regressive on some of the key issues of public information. PILDAT, which has been carrying out citizens assessment of Parliamentary performance since 2002, recently sought from the National Assembly of Pakistan the complete record of attendance of each Member of the National Assembly for the term ending in 2013. The National Assembly secretariat, however, declined to share the required information maintaining that the attendance record of MNAs �does not constitute a public record under section 7 of the Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002.� PILDAT has filed a complaint before the Ombudsman of Pakistan maintaining that attendance of Parliamentarians does not constitute �excluded information� under section 15-18 of the Freedom of Information Act 2002 and that PILDAT, as an indigenous organisation by Pakistani citizens, has the right to know the commitment and dedication of the Members of the Parliament towards their legislative duties for which they were elected through an electoral process.
   
   Now that the voters are about to choose their MNAs and MPAs for a new term, it is important for them to know the performance of their representatives during the past 5 years. It is important to note that daily attendance of all members of Indian Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is posted on their official website.

8. According to the Rule 201 (3) in the National Assembly of Pakistan when the House makes a reference (bill or any other matter) to a particular Standing Committee and if the Committee does not give its report within the �prescribed� time then the House can consider the report upon a motion. However, if no time is prescribed for the presentation of the report then there is no limit for the Committee to present the report. In contrast, the Rules of Procedure in the Lok Sabha in Indian Parliament state that when the time period has not been fixed for the Committee to present a report it should be presented within one month of the reference made to it. This issue is of particular importance because there are a number of important bills that are stuck at the Committee level sometimes for years but are not brought in the House. An amendment in rules, therefore, is needed which sets the time period for a committee to return to the House with its report/deliberations.

9. The process with which though MNAs submit questions and through which those are chosen to appear on the Orders of the Day is a very complicated process in the National Assembly of Pakistan. According to the Rules, Questions should be submitted 15 days in advance to the Secretary. The Questions are submitted manually in the Notice Office and are placed in the House on first come first serve basis. The questions are submitted to the Notice Office in Parliament by a Member or, on the member�s behalf a staff member on the last day of every session after it is prorogued. Members, however, feel that the National Assembly should reform the process of submitting Question and use other more viable and quick procedures such as Email for submission of Questions.

10. Question Hour is the most crucial part of the Assembly�s proceedings through which the elected members hold the Government to account. Very useful details are shared with members in response to their questions. The Question Hour is telecast on Pakistan Television (PTV) only. The National Assembly should extend this facility to other private television channels also who should also telecast this section.

11. The Assembly also failed to institute a specific Question Hour for the Prime Minister while this is a Parliamentary tradition around the World.

12. Despite repeated demands, the Assembly has failed to reform the procedure for the recruitment and promotion of National Assembly Staff. Under the garb of �independence� of the Assembly, recruitment and promotion issues are left to be decided internally with Speaker having final word. As a result, the Assembly may have some of the largest staff members on extension while induction of new staff is also made based on the personal choice of Speakers and not based on professional requirements of the job at hand. Pakistan�s former Premier, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, has also been convicted and jailed for his role in appointments when he served as Speaker of the National Assembly.
    
    On March 12, 2013, just 3 days before the expiry of the term of the 13th National Assembly, the House Finance Committee, chaired by the Speaker, approved the �continuation of 116 temporary posts in different cadres for the financial year 2013-2014.� According to the press release available at the Assembly website, the �said posts were required to be continued for the smooth functioning of the National Assembly Secretariat.� ^[3]
    
    Like all other Government employment, an institutionalised recruitment and promotion policy of Assembly Staff through the Public Service Commission is required. The promotions of staff also needs to be subject to successful completion of courses at the National School of Public Policy like other Civil Service officials in Pakistan.

Complete PILDAT Citizens Report on 5 Years of 13th National Assembly can be downloaded here.