March 30: More than 800,000 rupees is spent daily for the members of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly. If the parliamentarians do not work according to their responsibilities, that amount of money is wasted every day.

At least Rs 20 million is spent per month for the House of Representatives and the National Assembly from the state coffers. Considering 25 days of the month as working days and multiplying it by the daily expenses of Rs 800,000, the expenditure is calculated to be around Rs 20 million per month. This expenditure includes only the monthly salary of MPs, special allowances and communication expenses. If the allowances for the days of parliament sitting, transportation, housing allowances and other administrative expenses are added, the expenses will increase even more.

MPs are given furniture facilities once. Apart from this, the speaker gets Rs 3,000 and MPs Rs 2,500 as daily travelling allowance. 

Ever since the beginning of the current session of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly, the lawmakers have failed to draft laws despite no obstruction to the house business.

A total of three bills have been introduced by the 80th day of the new session of the House of Representatives. There is a provision in the parliament that the government can introduce government bills and parliamentarians can introduce non-government bills. However, neither the government nor the parliamentarians are interested in introducing a bill on matters of public interest. Their interests are more focused on consolidating power.

Among the bills that the government has now registered in parliament are the bills related to the Commission on Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Third Amendment) and the Constitutional Council Bill. As the draft of the House of Representatives Regulations are stalled in the House since a month, the law-making parliament is in a state of lawlessness.

There are 332 members in the National Assembly and the House of Representatives including speaker and deputy speaker and MPs. Among them, a monthly salary of Rs 67,320 has been fixed for the speaker. They get Rs 4,000 more per month as communication and special allowance. Likewise, the monthly salary of the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives and the vice chairperson of the National Assembly is Rs 60,970. Communication and special allowances are provided to them at the rate of Rs 4,000 per month. Likewise, 332 MPs of both Houses get a monthly salary of Rs 18.3 million at the rate of Rs 55,230 each.

There is a quota of 334 MPs in the House of Representatives and the National Assembly. The current number is 332. The government also has to pay salaries, allowances and other facilities to the employees working in the Federal Parliament Secretariat.

Dasharath Dhamala, deputy secretary of the Parliament Secretariat said that facilities are being provided to the officials of the Federal Parliament as per the provisions in the law. He said, “According to the provision in the law, all the officials are getting benefits and wages on time.”