Azam Tarar dubbed ‘most active minister’ in parliament – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has emerged as the most “influential and effective member” of the federal cabinet in terms of his performance in parliament during the current government’s first year in power, according to an analysis by a leading think tank.

The Pakistan Institute of Legis­l­a­tive Development and Trans­paren­­cy (Pildat) released its performance evaluation of federal ministers on Monday, which noted that out of 18 federal ministers and two ministers of state, only one was a woman, while non-Muslims did not have any representation.

To evaluate performance of cabinet members in parliament, Pildat looked at both houses: the 16th Na­­tional Assembly that became functional on Feb 29, 2024, and the Se­­nate of Pakistan, which was reconvened after the election of half of its membership on April 9, 2024.

The think tank used two parameters: attendance of ministers in parliament and the amount of time they spoke during parliamentary sessions.

Pildat analysis ranks cabinet members on basis of attendance, speaking time on floor in both houses

In their analysis, Pildat noted that Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar — who holds three key portfolios, Law and Justice, Human Rights and Parliam­entary Affairs — can be credited for the passage of most of the 38 government bills passed by the National Assembly during the past year.

His attendance in both houses of parliament was the highest, as he attended 89 (57pc) out of a total of 157 sittings of both houses, and spoke for more than 17 hours.

Khawaja Asif, who holds the portfolios of Defence, Defence Production and Aviation, attended 69 (44pc) of parliamentary sit-tings and spoke for more than 5.5 hours, placing him second on the Pildat list.

Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, the Minister for Maritime Affairs hailing from Chiniot, ranked third in attendance with 67 (43pc) sittings attended. However, he spoke for only 31 minutes during the first parliamentary year, placing him at 17th position under this parameter.

In terms of speaking time, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar ranked third, as he spoke for almost 4.5 hours but attended 63 (40pc) sittings, coming in at fifth in attendance rankings.

Finance Minister Muhammad Au­­rangzeb spoke for nearly four hours, but attended only 35 (22pc), while Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar spoke for two hours and 45 minutes, des­pite attending only 32 (20pc) sittings.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi came in second last on both indicators, attending only 10 (6pc) sittings and speaking for only 12 minutes during the entire year.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2025