lawmakers’ interest in national assembly shows declining...

FREE AND FAIR ELECTION NETWORKwww.fafen.org I www.openparliament.pk

101 lawmakers attend less than half of sittings Attendance remains higher in shorter sessions while lower in longer sessionsAverage annual attendance the lowest during second parliamentary year

Lawmakers’ interestin National AssemblyShows Declining Trend

Overall AttendanceThe 14th National Assembly completed its third parliamentary year on May 31, 2016. It held 289 sittings in 32 sessions between June 1, 2013 and May 30, 2016. The attendance record of lawmakers was first made public on the National Assembly website in June 2015 at the outset of third parliamentary year. The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) acquired the attendance record of the Members of the National Assembly (MNA) for the first two parliamentary years through an information request to the National Assembly Secretariat. This report is based on the official attendance record and does not include the attendance of the Joint Sittings of Parliament and sitting held on May 31, 2016.

The Assembly held 99 sittings in the first parliamentary year, 92 in the second and 98 in the third year. The highest attendance of MNAs was recorded during the first session of the 14th National Assembly followed by the third and 19th sessions which were single-sitting sessions. The third sitting of the first session witnessed the highest attendance when the election of the Prime Minister took place in the presence of 318 lawmakers. The fourth sitting of 18th session was the least attended with only 87 members were present.

The average attendance during each session of the National Assembly is shown in the graph below:

Average Attendance in National Assembly's Sessions

The annual average attendance of lawmakers witnessed a downward trend during the second parliamentary year. Each lawmaker, on average, attended 64 sittings during the first parliamentary year, 51 sittings during the second and 59 during the third. Similarly, an average of 222 MNAs attended each sitting during the first parliamentary year, 194 attended each sitting during the second parliamentary year and 208 attended each sitting during the third parliamentary year.

Average Attendance in each Parliamentary Year

1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year

222 194 208

311

246

291

196

221 214206

240

216203

225239

255

180196

175184 186

270

172189

245233

199

235

159

200 196207

197

223231

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Me

mb

ers

Session

Key Members' Attendance

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq attended 245 sittings during three years while Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi was present in 237 sittings. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended 39 sittings during three years - nine each in first and third parliamentary year and 21 in second parliamentary year. Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah attended 221 sittings.

Deputy SpeakerSpeaker Leader of the OppositionPrime Minister

245 237 39 221Sittings Sittings Sittings Sittings

Ministerial AttendanceAs many as 26 cabinet members – 17 Federal Ministers and 9 Ministers of State – are Members of the National Assembly. Each Minister, on average, attended 172 sittings during three parliamentary years. Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad was present during 285 sittings and the most regular minister in the National Assembly. He is the second most regular lawmaker during the past three years. Nine other cabinet members attended more than 200 sittings. Two federal ministers Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi and Ahsan Iqbal attended 80 and 99 sittings, respectively.

More than half of the ministers remained absent from as many as 54 sittings while there were only four sittings when all 26 ministers were present.

Sheikh Aftab Ahmed

285

Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada Usman Ibrahim

256 227

Muhammad Barjees Tahir

223

Abdul Qadir Baloch

222SittingsSittingsSittingsSittingsSittings

Least Regular Members

Ali Mohammad Khan Mahar

9

Imran Khan M. Hamza Shehbaz Sharif

18 22

Faryal Talpur

26

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif

39

PML-N PML-NPTI PPPPPPPP

Less than half of the members were present in 38 out of 289 sitting. As many as 101 lawmakers (29%) attended less than half (145) of the sittings. Prominent members including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his nephew Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, parliamentary leaders of PTI Imran Khan, MQM Farooq Sattar, JUI-F Fazl-ur-Rehman and PML Pervaiz Elahi attended less than half of the 289. The following table shows the list of 20 members with lowest attendance:

SittingsSittingsSittingsSittingsSittings

Ch. Parvez Elahi

40

Ch. Muhammad Asim Nazir Malik Asad Sikandar

42 45

Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali

47

Roshan Din Junejo

48

PML-N PML-NPPPP PPPP


PML

Amir Haider Khan

51

Malik Iqbal Mehdi Khan Dr. Fehmida Mirza

54 55

Dr. M. Farooq Sattar

56

Syed Mustafa Mehmood


ANP PML-N PPPP PPPPMQM

Reeta Ishwar

61

Muhammad Zain Ellahi Fazal-Ur-Rehman

66 67

Sardar M. Jafar Khan Leghari

72

Sardar Kamal Khan Bangulzai


PML-F IND JUI-F PML-N NP

Female Lawmakers’ Attendance

There are 70 female lawmakers in the National Assembly – 60 on reserved seats, nine elected and one minority. Nearly 77% women lawmakers attended half or more sittings. Each woman lawmaker, on average, attended more sittings than their male counterparts. A woman lawmaker, on average, attended 70 sittings during the first parliamentary year, 54 in the second year and 67 in the third year. On average, a male lawmaker attended 62, 51 and 57 sittings during these years. Aliya Kamran from JUI-F remained the most regular lawmaker. The average attendance of male and female lawmakers is given in the graph below:

6255 60

45 50 50 46 51 48 46 51 54 5440 42 37 41 42

58

40 4151 54

4356

3950 45 50 46 48 53

249

191

231

151

172165 160

189

168158

175186

201

140155

139 143 145

212

132

148

194179

156

179

121

150 151158

151

175178

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Me

mb

ers

Gender Average

Female Average Male Average

Minority Lawmakers’ Attendance

Aasiya Nasir

258

Khalil George Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani

252 227

Lal Chand Malhi

203

Ramesh Lal

201

Dr. Darshan

191

Sanjay Perwani Isphanyar M. Bhandara

184 178

Bhawan Das

155

Tariq Christopher Qaiser

124

JUI-F PML-N PML-N PTI PPPP

MQMPML-N PML-N PML-N PML-N

There are ten lawmakers elected on seats reserved for religious minorities. Half of them attended more than 200 sittings during three parliamentary years. Each minority lawmaker, on average, attended 197 sittings which is much higher than overall average of other lawmakers i.e. 168.



Political PartiesAttendance

Sheikh Aftab Ahmed Begum Tahira BukhariKiran Haider Sardar Mumtaz Khan Rana Shamim Ahmed Khan

285 284 281 279 270

1 2 3 4 5

Most Regular Members

SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz(189 MNAs)

PML-N

7 8

37

5662

19

Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+

Parliamentary Leader

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif39

Sittings


Lawmakers’ Attendance Patterns

Musarat Rafique Mahesar

257

1 2 3 4 5

SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian(46 MNAs)

PPPP

Shahida Rehmani Abdul Sattar Bachani Nafisa Shah Shamas-un-Nisa

257 255 241 227

5 5

12 12

9

3

Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+

Parliamentary Leader*

Makhdoom Amin Fahim (Late)34

* The lawmaker died on November 21, 2015. The party did not nominate another parliamentary leader.

Sittings




Siraj Muhammad Khan

233

1 2 3 4 5

SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Salim Rehman Dr. Shireen Mazari Gulzar Khan Ali Muhammad Khan

213 211 210 207

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(34 MNAs)

PTI

2 1

5

1511

0Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+


Imran Khan18

Sittings




M. Muzammil Qureshi

217

1 2 3 4 5

SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Sajid Ahmed Syed Asif Hasnain Shaikh Salahuddin Mehboob Alam

216 210 209 207

Muttahida Qaumi Movement(24 MNAs)

MQM

21

5

79

0Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+


Dr. M. Farooq Sattar57

Sittings




Aliya Kamran

287

1 2 3 4 5

SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Naeema Kishwar Khan Aasiya Nasir Shahida Akhtar Ali Muhammad Jamal Ud Din

284 258 253 233

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F)(13 MNAs)

JUI-F

0

1 1

3 3

4

Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+


Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman67

Sittings




Bismillah Khan

248

1 2 3 4 5

SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Bilal Rehman Shah Jee Gul Afridi Syed Ghazi Gulab Jamal Jamshaid Ahmad Dasti

219 210 153 136

Independents(9 MNAs)

IND

0

2

3

1

3

0Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+


Dr. Ghazi Gulab Jamal153

Sittings




Syed Kazim Ali Shah

161

1 2 3

SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Ghous Bux Khan Mahar Pir Bux Junejo

147 133

Pakistan Muslim League - Functional(5 MNAs)

PML-F

0

2 2

1

0 0Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+


Pir Syed Saddaruddin Shah80

Sittings

SittingsSittingsSittings



Naseema Hafeez Panezai

266

1 2


SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan

226

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party(4 MNAs)

PkMAP

0 0 0 0

2 2

Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+


Mahmood Khan Achakzai228

Sittings

SittingsSittings


Sher Akbar Khan

269

1 2


SITTINGS

ME

MB

ER

S

Aisha Syed

260

Jamat-e-Islami (4 MNAs)

JI

0 0 0 0

2 2

Less than 50 50 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+


Sahibzada Tariqullah229


Sittings

SittingsSittings

Smaller Parliamentary Parties’ Attendance

Usman Khan Tarrakai

175

Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad Ghulam Ahmad Bilour

185 139

Amir Haider Khan

51

Iftikhar Ud Din

224

Syed Essa Nori

99

Sardar Kamal Bangulzai Shahjehan Munir Mangerio

73 235

Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi

141

Ch. Tariq Bashir Cheema

109

Ch. Parvez Elahi

40

Muhammad Ijaz-Ul-Haq Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao

181 198

BNP

AMLP

NP

APMLAJIP ANP ANP

NPP NPP PML

PML PML-Z QWP-S



SittingsSittingsSittings

This report is based on the information shared on the website of the National Assembly and acquired from the National Assembly Secretariat through information requests. Every effort has been made to

keep this report accurate and comprehensive. Errors and omissions are excepted.

ABOUT FAFEN

Free and Fair Election Networkwww.fafen.org

www.openparliament.pk I www.parliamentfiles.com

§ FAFEN is one of the most credible networks of civil society organizations working for strengthening citizens' voice and accountability in Pakistan since 2006.

§ FAFEN has harnessed information technology for real-time monitoring, facilitation and technical backstopping of partners for effective and result-based program delivery.

§ FAFEN is the only civil society group to have been invited by the Judicial Commission to present the evidence of illegalities and irregularities documented through the course of General Elections 2013 Observation. The systemic and procedural issues identified by FAFEN have been acknowledged by the commission in its detailed findings.

§ FAFEN's recommendations for electoral reforms have contributed to the work of Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reforms.

§ FAFEN's advocacy for parliamentary transparency, accountability and reforms has shaped public discourse on parliamentary reforms. Improved citizens' access to parliamentary information including daily public release of parliamentarians' attendance records can be directly attributed to FAFEN's work.

§ FAFEN deployed 18,000 and 40,000 non-partisan and trained observers for the systematic observation of general election 2008 and 2013, respectively, largest citizens' observation ever undertaken in Pakistan.

§ FAFEN's evidence and recommendations for reforms have improved the quality of public and political discourse on elections, its issues and need for reforms. Leading political parties and media houses extensively use FAFEN's election findings and analysis to build a case for reforms.

§ With more than 16,400 followers on Twitter and around 72,000 on Facebook, FAFEN is considered one of the most reliable sources of electoral and parliamentary information in the country.

lawmakers’ interest in national assembly shows declining...

Documents