Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Monday said that democracy would be strengthened if the two houses of the parliament and provincial assemblies asserted their constitutional role.
“If we abdicate our space, then other stakeholders will enter the parliamentary domain as and when they like,” he made these remarks while talking to a delegation of chairpersons of the committees, members and secretariat of the Balochistan Assembly headed by Speaker Rahila Durrani.
The Senate chairman said that legislature was the weakest of the three links in the trichotomy of power provided for in the Constitution and its mandate was often overstepped by the other two pillars. While emphasizing upon the importance of linkages between the house of federation and federating units, he said that a proper mechanism for institutional linkages could help experience sharing at the level of members as well as secretariats where both the sides could learn the parliamentary practices.
He also said that the basic spirit of the parliamentary form of the government was committees system which was an extension of House. Speaker Rahila praised the initiatives and guidance of the Senate chairman and told the meeting that a Council of Chairpersons Committee had been set up in Balochistan Assembly too on the patterns of the same in the Senate.
She also sought advice in making a procedure of following up on committees’ recommendations. During the interactive session, members of the Balochistan Assembly most of whom were chairpersons of committees narrated the issues and their possible solutions being faced in the provincial assembly.
Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani and Senate Secretary Amjed Pervez Malik while giving details of the initiatives undertaken at Senate to make committees’ work effective, institutionalizing linkages with provincial assemblies and other areas also extended the proposal of training of members and Secretariat of Balochistan Assembly by the same of Senate to share and learn from experiences. Mian Raza Rabbani also praised the efforts of Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services for arranging the workshop for members of Balochistan Assembly with emphasis on how committees could be made effective.
He said that learning never stopped for parliamentarians whether it was about politics, handling of issues of public interest or information about Parliamentary procedures. He further said, “We can observe and take information from international Parliamentary practices but the basic principles have to be adopted considering the ground realities of our country and people which can be best learned through such workshops.”
He directed Senate Secretariat to evolve a mechanism for improving the interaction between chairmen of the committee of the provincial assemblies particularly Balochistan and those of the Senate standing committees to learn from the experiences and improve the parliamentary practices.
The meeting was attended among others by MPAs Nasrullah Khan Zayray, Zmarak Khan, Agha Syed Liaquat Ali, Manzoor Ahmed Khan Kakar, Dr. Shama Ishaq Baloch, Dr Rukaiya Saeed Hashmi, William John Barkat, Spozmai Achakzai, Hussan Bano, Arifa Siddique, Anita Irfan, Secretary Senate, ED PIPS and officials from Balochistan Assembly.