A critic once made a sardonic dig at the House of Commons by billing it as a mere debating club. Even if one were to assume it as a debating club, its members at least have the decency of not using fisticuffs and four-letter words against one another on its floor. They at least have the patience of listening to one another’s point of view with due respect. On the contrary, our elected representatives , more often than not, indulge in scuffles on the floor of the assembly and come to blows with one another.
In all, taken together, 1256 honourable members sit in our National Assembly, senate, and assemblies of Panjab, Sind, KPK, Balochistan, Gilgit and Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. They all are well paid persons getting fixed monthly emoluments which are fairly high keeping in view the poor financial position of this country. In addition, they are paid special daily allowances whenever they attend sessions of the assembly. They get free medical treatment and the taxpayers also foot the bills of their travelling allowances so on and so forth.
The question is what is their output?What do they deliver to the nation in return?There are a number of areas which require urgent new legislation for the good of the common man. If experience be any guide one notices that a majority of these honourable parliamentarians do not take interest in the proceedings of the assembly which they are supposed to take. The speakers of these assemblies have to postpone proceedings of the House frequently due to lack of quorum. The parliamentarians can become punctual only if the PM starts attending parliament regularly . The media too must carry out a survey at the end of every year pinpointing the type of legislation passed by them during the year mentioning clearly whether it was people-friendly or it was passed to favour the elite class.
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