THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PASSES THE FEDERAL BUDGET 2015-2016

The budget session, held in June 2015, resulted in the passage of the Finance Bill 2015, and marked yet another year of public representatives going through the motions of passage of the budget and without the time and institutional and resources to review the budget.

Table 1: Budget Sessions of the 14th National Assembly of Pakistan

	2013-2014	2014-2015	2015-2016
Sittings	13	14	15
Hours per sittings	6 hours and 32 minutes	5 hours	5 hours and 14 minutes
Prime Minister’s Attendance	15%	43%	27%
Leader of Opposition’s Attendance	100%	100%	87%

The National Assembly sittings lasted a total of 15 days, increasing by 7% from the second year when 14 sittings were held, and by 15% from the first year when 13 sittings were held. According to Rule 187 in the National Assembly Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, a minimum of four days is required to discuss the Federal budget. This is not nearly enough time for the legislators to thoroughly scrutinise the budget and is amongst the lowest amount of time spent on a budget session in the world. For instance, the Indian Lok Sabha spends up to 90 days in review and passage of the budget.¹ At least 30 to 45 sittings must be mandated for the budget debate in the National Assembly through an amendment to the Rules of Procedure.² The budget must also be referred to relevant standing committees for detailed examination so that they can do an in-depth analysis of the budget and give recommendations on the budgets of specific ministries or departments.

The attendance of the MNAs in the budget debate was recorded at 67% with 10 sittings on average attended by the legislators.³ Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, MNA, (NA-120, Punjab, PML-N) attended 4 sittings at 27% of the total. The attendance of the Prime Minister declined from the second year by 16 percentage points when his attendance had been 43%, however it has increased by 12 percentage points from the first year when his attendance had been 15%.

On the other hand, the attendance of Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, MNA (NA-199, Sindh, PPPP), the Leader of the Opposition, has declined by 13 percentage points from both the first and second Parliamentary years. The Leader of Opposition was present during 13 sittings at 87% of the total budget session in the second year.

Unfortunately, a number of leaders in the National Assembly did not attend a single sitting during the entire budget session, including: Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf, Mr. Imran Khan, MNA (NA-56, Punjab, PTI), Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Fehmida Mirza, MNA (NA-225, Sindh, PPPP), and Mr. Muhammad Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, MNA (NA-119, Punjab, PML-N).

 
Supplementary Budget

A major shortcoming of the budget process in the Parliament has been that the Government, without the prior approval of the Parliament, can incur extra expenditures over and above the approved budget. The extra expenditures are then packaged and presented to the Assembly for approval. Pakistan is one of the few countries along with Bangladesh and Denmark in which the Government can revise the budget after its passage by the Parliament. Clause 84 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan states that if “any money has been spent on any service during a financial year in excess of the amount granted for that service for that year; the Federal Government shall have power to authorize expenditure from the Federal Consolidated Fund” and can be laid before the National Assembly. In this vein, the House approved charged expenditures on supplementary demands of grants worth Rs. 12.620 billion for the year ending on June 30, 2015, which is over a 100% more than what the Government demanded in the previous year. The legislators must supervise the ongoing expenditures of the Government over the course of the year and can emulate the Sindh Assembly’s Rule 144, which allows legislators to debate the expenditures made by the Government on a quarterly basis.

 
Attendance Record of MNAs Available Online

PILDAT welcomes the President of Pakistan’s decision to uphold our request to upload the Attendance Records of MNAs in the National Assembly. The Presidential verdict No. 441/WM/2013 dated July 06, 2015 on ‘Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob Versus National Assembly Secretariat’ rejected the appeal of the National Assembly Secretariat made in October 2013 against the Federal Ombudsman’s ‘recommendation’ to the National Assembly provide the attendance record to PILDAT. As directed by the President, the National Assembly has begun to upload the attendance record of MNAs on its website since July 2015.

 
Live Telecast of Budget Debate

During a sitting on June 08, 2015, Opposition parties in both the National Assembly and Senate had refused to participate in the debate unless the Government agreed to arrange live television coverage of speeches. In a welcome move towards transparency, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, PML-N, announced that PTV had arranged live coverage of the speeches, and had also agreed give “live feed” to all private television channels.

 
Pakistan Army (Amendment) Ordinance

In an unusual move, the National Assembly passed a resolution on June 15, 2015 to extend the Pakistan Army Act (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 for 120 days. The MQM legislators protested this under the contention that a law was being extended through a resolution and not through the introduction, review and passage as a bill in the Parliament as is the usual practice. The Ordinance, which permits the use of extraordinary measures for speedy trials of offences relating to terrorism and prevention of acts threatening the security of Pakistan, was tabled by Defence Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, MNA, (NA-110, Punjab, PML-N).

 
SENATE

 
Senate Session 116

The 116th session of the Senate of Pakistan that took place from June 05-17, 2015, comprising 9 sittings. Since the Senate is constitutionally not required to pass the Finance Bill, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization met to review budget and submitted 92 recommendations on the Finance Bill, of which the National Assembly incorporated 56.

 
Budget Process

To improve the budget process, the Senate recommended that the Ministry of Finance present the foci of the budget in March of every year and the detailed budget by mid-May in both Houses of the Parliament for a pre budget discussion. The Senate also recommended that a mid-year budget review in the Parliament be made mandatory to be carried out each year in February. Though these proposals have not yet materialized, they are significant, as they will allow the legislators time to carefully review the Federal Budget.

 
Senate Session 117

The 117th session of the Senate of Pakistan, which was held between July 06, 2015 and July 10, 2015, comprised 5 sittings. During the brief session, the Senate managed to pass 7 bills, including the amended Local Government (Amended) Bill 2015 to pave the way for Local Government elections in the Islamabad Capital Territory.

 
Local Government Bill

The Local Government elections in the Islamabad Capital Territory had originally been planned for July 28, 2015, however the fact that the Senate of Pakistan had not passed the bill until July 09, 2015, the required preparation for the elections could not be made. The Election Commission of Pakistan had controversially announced the schedule for the Local Government elections without the passage of the bill by the Senate, to the indignation of many Senators. The major point of contention that had prevented the passage of the bill in the Senate had been whether elections should be on a party basis. The Senate, on July 9, 2015, passed the amended the Local Government Bill 2015 by majority for party-based elections had thus allowed the ECP to draw up a new election schedule for October 2015.

 
Senate Rules Amended

The Senate made amendments to rules 9, 79, 158, 166, 182 and 277 and inserted new rules, 162A and 262A during a sitting on July 06, 2015. Under Rules 158 and 162A the Senate Special Committee on Devolution Process to oversee the devolution process under the 18th Constitutional Amendment has been reconstituted. The remaining amendments were less substantial and included, for instance, the amended Rule 9, which states that the outgoing Senate Chairman would preside over the first meeting of the house after the elections instead of a member being nominated by the President of Pakistan. Newly added Rule 262A states that the Secretary may, when asked to do so by the Chairman, or in the absence of the Chairman, make announcements in the House.

 
Petitions to the Senate Increase

The Public Petition Table was established on April 04, 2015 on the order of the Senate Chairman, Senator Raza Rabbani, to address issues of public concern in the Senate. The Senate Secretariat received 554 public petitions between April and July 12, 2015. Of these 20 were selected for discussion in the House while 169 were deferred to committees for review. Of the 20 selected for discussion, 18 have already been discussed and directions have been given.⁴ The response to public petitions is an encouraging move that will increase public trust in the Parliament.

 

THIRD BUDGET PASSED BY THE PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLIES

 
BALOCHISTAN ASSEMBLY

Balochistan Assembly held its budget session over the course of 6 sittings, a reduction by 14% from the both the first and second years, when the debate was held over 7 sittings each. The Balochistan Rules of Procedure require a minimum of only 3 sittings to discuss the budget, inadequate time to scrutinise the Provincial Budget, especially in light of the fact that pre and post budget debates are also not required, rendering the contribution of legislators to the Provincial Budget almost non-existent.

The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed 3 bills during the budget session: the Balochistan Finance Bill 2015, the Balochistan Revenue Authority Bill 2015 and the Balochistan Sales Tax on Services Bill 2015.

 
Chairpersons of Standing Committees in Balochistan

One of the outstanding problems facing the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan in its second Parliamentary year had been the non-selection of Chairpersons for Committees, making them inactive. During a meeting of legislators presided by Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch, MPA (PB-48, Balochistan, NP) the Chief Minister of Balochistan, on June 10, 2015; the Chairpersons on seventeen committees were finally nominated. However, committees continued to remain inactive through July, as the Chairpersons had not been not formally elected to their posts.

 
No Speaker for the Balochistan Assembly

While the Assembly has taken one step forward by nominating the leaders of the committees, the position of Speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan continued to be vacant through July 2015, as Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, MPA (PB-41, Balochistan, PML) formerly the Deputy Speaker has been the Acting Speaker since May 23, 2015. Rule 10 of the Rules of Procedure state that in the event of a vacancy, a Speaker must be elected “If the Assembly is not in session,

 

References:

1. Please see: Comparison of Parliamentary Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Pakistan and India, PILDAT, September 13, 2004, at: https://www.pildat.org/Publications/publication/FP/Proceedings-comparisonParliamentaryRulesofProcedureofIndiaAndPakistan.pdf

2. Please see: Citizens’ Report: 14th National Assembly of Pakistan: 1st Parliamentary Year: June 01, 2013 – May 31, 2014, PILDAT, August 2014 at: https://www.pildat.org/Publications/publication/DemocracyAndLegStr/Performanceofthe14th
   NationalAssemblyofPakistan_1stParliamentaryYear01June2013to31May2014.pdf

3. The attendance data for the National Assembly was acquired directly from the National Assembly website, which has begun the practice of uploading attendance record online.

4. Please see ‘Senate Receives 554 Public Petitions’, The News, July 22, 2015, at http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-329974-Senate-receives-554-public-petitions

5. Please see ‘KP Assembly Speaker has to Cut a Sorry Figure’, The News, June 28, 2015, at http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-326015-KP-Assembly-speaker-has-to-cut-a-sorry-figure

6. The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab began the practice of uploading the individual attendance record of its Members online in April 2015.

7. Please see ‘Pakistan Heat Wave Eases but Death Toll Rises’ Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2015 at http://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistan-heat-wave-eases-but-death-toll-rises-1435254733