By September 2018, the Parliament had been constituted following to General Elections-2018. All members elected in the 2018 General Elections had sworn their oath, Mr. Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, had assumed office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and Parliament was in full session.
Prior to that, on 18 August 2018, PTI uploaded its manifesto on the Prime Minister Office website as is customary when every government assumes power [1]. At the heart of the PTI Manifesto is the proclamation and promise to institute legal reform through legislation.
Despite the promise to initiate reform through legislation, only seven Acts of Parliament have received Presidential assent and have been notified in the Official Gazette of Pakistan in the past twelve months [2] :
Of all these Acts of Parliament, only the Finance Act, 2019 which is determinative of the annual budget amounts to original legislation. Otherwise, two Acts are repealing statutes while the two amendments to the Elections Act have made minor alterations. The other two Acts are supplementary to Financial Legislation. It is worth noting that had Article 73(1A) not been incorporated into the Constitution by the Eighteenth Amendment, the passage of these Acts would have been considerably arduous. [3]
The reason for the flux in legislation is likely attributable to political motives and allegiances. The allegiance of members of opposition parties to their political dogma seems insurmountable. All Members of Parliament are bound by the oath they swear at the time of assuming their positions as Members of Parliament. Part of the oath requires members to ‘perform their functions…..always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being and prosperity of Pakistan’
Legislation is perhaps the most effective means of attaining prosperity and promoting the well-being of the people of Pakistan. Matters like women empowerment, child labour, child abuse, minority rights all require consideration and preferably legislation. It is hard to fathom how any citizen of Pakistan could countenance domestic violence or child abuse. However, political allegiances seemingly surmount humanitarian considerations, even though such allegiances are violative of the oath of all Members of Parliament. [4]
The best recourse available as an alternative has resulted in the promulgation of ordinances, most notably the Assets Declaration Ordinance, 2019 and its concomitant legislation. That is perhaps the most viable method of legislation that the Government can utilize as in the prevailing circumstances, the Government lacks the required numbers and support in the upper house of Parliament i.e. Senate of Pakistan.
In Pakistan’s case, the purpose of the legislature seems rather paradoxical. The National Assembly and Senate halls remain populated, yet politics permeate through the functions of both houses and have led to insufficient legislation by Parliament. The Public exchequer continues to bear the costs of operations and functions of Parliament and Parliamentarians. In Pakistan, it is due to the lack of legislation that people are likely to suffer deprivation of liberty, life and fortune and although the legislature is in session throughout the year, consensus is seldom and as a result, Bills cannot go through the legislative process and cannot be enacted. And this deficiency certainly yields a detrimental impact upon the everyday lives of the citizens of Pakistan.
Provincial legislatures have displayed diverse results. The respective websites for each province’s Law Department provide statistics on the laws enacted. In 2019, according to their respective databases, Baluchistan[5] and KPK [6] have enacted one and two acts respectively. The Sindh [7] and Punjab [8] provincial assemblies have fared better: The Punjab Legislature has enacted 15 statutes and Sindh has enacted 12 Acts over the past twelve months.
In summation, it requires no iteration that successful States place considerable importance upon legislation as a means of development, administration and betterment of the people. In order to address the needs of Pakistan, which are manifold, the necessity of legislation remains paramount.
1 http://pmo.gov.pk/documents/manifesto-pti.pdf
2 http://www.na.gov.pk/en/acts-tenure.php?tenure_id=20
3 Article 73 reads “Notwithstanding anything contained in Article 70, a Money Bill shall originate in the National Assembly. (1A) The National Assembly shall, consider the recommendations of the Senate and after the Bill has been passed by the Assembly with or without the recommendations of the Senate, it shall be presented to the President for assent.
4 Of course, the promise to liberate South Punjab as a new province is hardly a realistic possibility as attaining support of two-thirds of the legislature would be herculean task for the present legislative setup.
5 https://www.balochistan.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_docman&task=search_result&Itemid=677&search_phrase=2019&catid=0&ordering=newest&search_mode=any&search_where%5B%5D=search_name&search_where%5B%5D=search_description
6 http://kpcode.kp.gov.pk/homepage/advance_search_process_index/261150
7 http://www.sindhlaws.gov.pk/GazetteDetail.aspx?X=ACT&Year=2018
8 http://www.punjablaws.gov.pk/index2.html