Daily Times

LAHORE: A systematic assessment of individual parliamentary performance of the senators, during the 13th parliamentary year of the Senate, was carried out by PILDAT. According to the results of the assessment, the overall average performance score of the senators stood at 41%.

According to a report available with Daily Times, top five positions were acquired by Senator Col (r) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) with 95% overall score, Senator Muhammad Usman Kakar of Pakistan Milli Awami Party with 76% overall score, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed of Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and Senator Saeed Ghani of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) both with 73% overall score respectively, Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) with an overall score of 68%, Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) both with 66% overall score respectively. On the other hand, senators from Punjab, the largest province, failed to make it to the top five.

As many as 102 senators attained ranks or positions between one and 40. Senate Chairman Senator Raza Rabbani and Deputy Chairman Senator Molana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri were not included in the assessment exercise as their powers and functions differ greatly from that of a regular member of the Senate.

The top five women senators, according to the PILDAT survey, included Sassui Palijo from Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian with an overall rank of 13 and overall score of 51%. Sitara Ayaz of Awami National Party (ANP) with overall score of 49%, Nuzhat Sadiq of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with overall score of 43%, Sehar Kamran of PPPP with of 42% and Senator Gul Bashra of PMAP with an overall score of 41%.

The report claimed that Leader of the House Senator Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq from PML-N attained a score of 62% and was on the 8th position. Leader of the Opposition Senator Aitzaz Ahsan from PPPP was not far behind with an overall score of 57%. Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Minister Senator Pervaiz Rasheed of PML-N attained a score of 27%, while Human Rights Minister Senator Kamran Michael of PML-N followed suit with a score of 24%.

Other notables in this assessment exercise included Jamaat-e- Islami Ameer Senator Siraj-ul-Haq with an overall score of 63%, Ports and Shipping Minister Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo with an overall score of 59%, former interior minister Rehman Malik got an overall score of 36%, KP Governor and former senator Iqbal Zafar Jhagra of PML-N got an overall score of 36% while PPPP Vice-President Senator Sherry Rehman with an overall score of 25%.

The performance scorecards of senators presented in the report focused on three main aspects of the parliamentary role of a senator included oversight, legislation and representation. The top performer in oversight was Senator Col. (R) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (Sindh, MQM) with an average score of 4.4 out of 5. The Top Performer in Legislation was senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed (Federal Capital, PML) with a total of 9 private member’s bills introduced of which 8 passed in the Senate during the year. Top performer in representation was senator Hamza (Punjab, PML-N), with the highest attendance of 97% in the plenary sessions of the Senate.

The PPP-P has the political party with the highest number of top-performing senators. In order to gauge this result, the top 15 positions or ranks were checked for each political party. The PPP has four of its elected leadership in the senate among the top 15 position holders. Similarly, the top 15 positions were also checked for the Province/Territory with the highest percentage of top-performing senators, which turned out to be the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Seven (7) or 30% of Senators from KP are among the top 15 position holders.

The methodology and framework of assessing the performance of 102 senators were developed indigenously. The data for preparing the scorecards was obtained from the two main public sources; the official website of the Senate and the ‘Report to the People of Pakistan’ produced by the Senate. Senators themselves were also contacted to provide their updated educational and professional details. Federal ministers have not been scored in the parameter on number of committees chaired, as the rules do not allow them to be elected as chairmen of a standing committee and most of the other committees.

These scorecards seek to provide the citizens of Pakistan with some critical information in order to empower them to monitor their elected representatives and to identify the prospective future political leadership of Pakistan.

Further, senators’ performance has been evaluated based on parameters including oversight, number of committee memberships, number of committees chaired, attendance in committee meetings, number of adjournment motions, number of resolutions, number of call attention motions, number of legislation, private member bills introduced, private member bills passed attendance in the plenary sessions.

The principal objective behind this evaluation exercise was to foster transparency and greater democratic accountability in the country and to help in mapping exercise of the future political leadership of Pakistan.

This was a first attempt made by PILDAT to assess and rank the performance of senators, and hence, may have a lot of room for improvement.