ISLAMABAD:
Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar has emerged as the most influential and effective member of the federal cabinet in the parliament during 2024-2025 in terms of his presence in both housesthe Senate and the National Assemblyand the amount of time he spoke during parliamentary sessions.
PILDAT on Monday released a performance evaluation of federal ministers in the first year of the 16th National Assembly that draws to a close on February 28, 2025.
To evaluate performance of the cabinet members in parliament, PILDAT looked at both the houses of the parliament: 16th National Assembly that became functional on February 29, 2024 and the Senate of Pakistan which was reconvened after the election of half of its membership on April 09, 2024.
According to its report, despite the diversity of opinion about the desirability and quality of various laws, Tarar can be credited with the passage of most of the 38 government bills during the first year, which is believed to be the record number of bills passed by any past National Assembly during its first year.
His presence in both houses was found to be the highest by significant margins as he attended 89 (57%) out of a combined total of 157 sittings in the two houses and spoke for more than 17 hours in the two houses during the first year of the Parliament.
Following him, albeit at a distance, is Khawaja Asif, who holds the portfolios of Defence, Defence Production and Aviation. He attended 69 (44%) sittings of the parliament and spoke for more than 5.5 hours and secured second position in both attendance and speaking time in the Parliament.
Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, federal minister for maritime affairs, ranks third in attendance with 67 (43%) sittings attended. However, he spoke for only 31 minutes during the first parliamentary year, placing him at 17th position under this parameter.
Federal Minister for Industries Rana Tanveer Hussain, Federal Minister of Housing Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervaiz are tied for fourth position in attendance rankings, with 66 (42%) sittings attended.
They each spoke for 1 hour 44 minutes, 1 hour 1 minute and 1 hour 31 minutes respectively.
In terms of speaking time, Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar ranked third. He spoke for almost 4.5 hours but attended 63 (40%) sittings, coming in at fifth in attendance rankings.
Following him in speaking time rankings is Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb who spoke for nearly 4 hours but attended only 35 (22%) sittings.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi came in second last on both indicators: attending only 10 (6%) sittings and speaking for only 12 minutes during the entire year.
According to PILDAT, Naqvi’s parliamentary record “is a testament to the reduced value of parliament”.
