- Senate Secretary Amjed Pervez Malik says self-reliance, futuristic planning and judicious use of available resources should be guiding principles of parliamentary governance
Senate Secretary Amjed Pervez Malik has said that in order to make development conducive, indigenously developed strategic plans and internal decision making forums have to be developed by parliaments across the world.
He made these remarks while giving a presentation at the second expert roundtable of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on the common principles for support to parliaments, said a message received from Geneva here Thursday.
Amjed Pervez Malik observed that internal reforms in parliaments must not be quantified in terms of number of projects. It is a paradigm shift towards strengthening internal mechanisms, amending rules of procedures and utilising internal resources of stability.
The roundtable conference taking place at IPU Headquarters in Geneva is aimed at exploring good practices and discussing the lessons in how parliaments govern their own development.
During his presentation on the theme of proactive parliaments and bolstering self-development, he presented Senate of Pakistan as a special case study of change which was pivoted on a newly-developed and progressive reformation model that was self-governed, self-conceived and productive.
He briefed the participants about the 2013 strategic plan adopted by Senate Secretariat which was the first step towards governing own development. This roadmap of secretariat was given complete political ownership by the leadership in 2015 and brought forth a multilayered parliamentary governance and development matrix.
Amjed Malik said that political will for change and synergy between leadership and secretariat administration were a key to parliamentary reformation process. He remarked during his presentation that self-reliance, futuristic planning and judicious use of available resources should be the guiding principles of parliamentary governance.
The common principles for support to parliaments aim to enhance the quality and effectiveness of Parliamentary support programmes.
They were adopted by the 131st IPU Assembly in October 2014 and have since received the endorsement of over 115 parliaments and organisations. Amjed Malik has been contributing in finalisation of these principles. His earlier interventions were aimed at underlining the importance of parliament demanded or identified reforms and development which have been included as a principle and the roundtable being held at IPU HQ in Geneva is showcasing Senate of Pakistan as a case study of successful achievement of self-development in recent years.
On this occasion, the book of Amjed Pervez Malik was launched as a base document for the guide for parliaments and partners that will help enable more proactive engagement by parliaments.
It will map out suggestions for the infrastructure and processes needed to this end and provide parliaments and support partners with a transparent set of criteria on which to build support relationships, resulting in stronger partnerships and more effective and sustainable outcomes.