ISLAMABAD   -   As the President has dissolved the 15th National Assem­bly three days before the cul­mination its five-year term, it has not just pushed the timing of the general elections, dark clouds have also gathered on the horizon for timely elections to the next National Assembly.

The outgoing National As­sembly passed a total of 279 pieces of legislation in its five years with the latest flurry of hasty legislation undermining basic tenets of constitution­al scheme. Legislative activity in this National Assembly wit­nessed an increase of 45 per­cent over the 192 laws passed during the last 14 days of the National Assembly.

This National Assembly had also witnessed two govern­ments: the first from August 18, 2018 to April 10, 2022 with the PTI Chairman Imran Khan as PM, while the second govern­ment was formed by a coalition of the PDM with Shehbaz Shar­if as PM which lasted from April 11, 2022 to August 09, 2023,

According to the data com­piled by PILDAT, the outgoing national assembly, the PTI gov­ernment relied heavily on ordi­nances for the purpose of leg­islation. Out of 75 ordinances laid in the National Assembly in 5 years, only 3 were promul­gated by the coalition govern­ment while 72 were promul­gated by the PTI government.

As compared to the term of the 14th National Assem­bly when only 38 ordinances were promulgated, a 97 per­cent increase was witnessed in the number of ordinances passed in the lower house of parliament.

In the house the largest number of laws were made in this assembly as com­pared to the previous three Assemblies starting from 2002. Just during the last three weeks of the 15th Na­tional Assembly, 73 bills were passed. Out of these 73 bills, 36 (49%) bills were not referred to concerned com­mittees, the data revealed. In its 5-year term, the last NA was only convened for 452 sittings or average 90 sittings per year. The previ­ous (14th) National Assem­bly was convened for 495 sittings or on average 99 sit­tings per year which in itself is not a great performance but it still shows a decrease of 9% in sittings. It must be noted here that average cost to taxpayers of each work­ing hour in 5 years comes to Rs24.23 million per hour. In these five years, a unique example of the first-ever successful passage of Vote of No-Confidence (VoNC) in Pakistan’s parliamentary history against a prime min­ister was witnessed. Even though two previous Prime Ministers had faced vote of no-confidence against them but those had remained un­successful. Despite repeat­ed promises, Prime Minis­ter’s Weekly Question Hour was not started during nearly four years of Imran Khan’s prime ministership or even afterwards. The as­sembly members and com­mittees failed to even ques­tion and oversee the State’s key policy decisions and practices on critical crises that developed during the past 5 years which includ­ed, for instance, Pakistan’s engagement with the out­lawed TTP, crisis with India over the change of status of Indian Occupied Kashmir and the so-called ‘cipher is­sue’ among other region­al and international con­cerns, PILDAT analyzed in its report.