Is parliament effective?

A DEMOCRACY needs an effective parliament. Has Pakistan’s parliament lived up to this responsibility? The evidence suggests it hasn’t. Parliament has underperformed. It has acted as little more than a rubber-stamp for the present government. This reflects a broader trend of democratic erosion in the country in recent years. Several reports offer telling insights into parliament’s functioning. The most recent was released last week by a civil society organisation. It records the low attendance of members of the National Assembly in its proceedings. According to Fafen (Free and Fair Election Network), only 20 per cent of MNAs attended all sittings of the Lower House in the 27th session in May. Thirty-three members did not show up for any sitting. The prime minister was absent from all nine sittings as were some ministers. The leader of the opposition, however, attended all of them. As many as 267 members out of 333 skipped at least one sitting of the session. An earlier report by Pildat (Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency) evaluated the National Assembly’s performance in the parliamentary year March 2025 to February 2026. It also found low attendance by members. The report pointed out that the Assembly’s lack of quorum was raised 19 times, with eight sittings adjourned due to the absence of members. Despite this low and declining engagement by MNAs, the ruling party has made no effort to address the recurring problem of empty benches. Attendance is not the only indicator of parliamentary conduct. What matters most is how it performs its legislative and deliberative functions. This is arguably the most unedifying aspect of its performance. It is due principally to the attitude of the government, which enjoys a simple majority in the Assembly, but with its ally, the PPP, it has a two-thirds majority. The way constitutional amendments have been bulldozed through parliament in the past two years is a striking illustration of its attitude to par