- Senate chairman, NA speaker to inaugurate five-day event with over 70 delegates from 23 countries
A meeting of Special Committee on Creation of Asian Parliament (SCCAP) and APA Standing Committee on Political Affairs (SCPA) would be held from March 13 to 17 here in the federal capital.
The event would formally be inaugurated by Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani and National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday. More than 70 delegates from 23 different countries including members of the parliaments and others would expected to participate in this meeting being hosted by the Senate.
Owing to success of Pakistan’s parliamentary diplomacy, more than 23 countries are participating in the APA’s standing committee meeting which is more than participating countries in the General Assembly of APA in other countries. Due to momentum generated by the Senate even those countries are attending this event in Pakistan which were not attending any APA event since long.
Such an overwhelming response from the Asian countries is a testimony to the active participation of the Senate in the affairs of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly spearheaded by its chairman. Pakistan is the vice president of the APA and chairperson of the Special Committee of the Asian Parliament. During the event, a number of resolutions are expected to be adopted by the SCCAP and SCPA.
Pakistan is likely to present the major resolutions including the one related to creation of the Asian Parliament. The Asian Parliamentary Assembly dates back to September 1999 when a group of Asian parliamentarians decided to join hands for the promotion of peace and human rights in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by establishing the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP) which was later on converted into APA in 2004 after passage of the Islamabad declaration.
Since its inception, the Senate has played an active role to make the forum vibrant and has injected dynamism by putting forward innovation ideas for discussion aimed at regional integration and prosperity of the Asian region. The Senate also held the presidency of the important regional forum for two consecutive years and successfully hosted two plenary sessions of the forum in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The proposal of the creation of the Asian Parliament was also floated by the Senate in seventh plenary which was held in Lahore and received huge acknowledgement from the member countries moreover different countries across the Asian region endorsed the proposal.
