Tag: Parliament

ISLAMABAD - Rumpus is expected as President Asif Ali Zardari addresses a joint sitting of both houses of parliament for the fourth consecutive year today (Tuesday) amid announcements by major opposition parties to either walk out of the session or registering protests on the government's failure to deal with national and public issues. Zardari is going to make history as he would be the only democratically-elected president to address parliament for the fourth time.
Though the

DHARAMSALA - Tibet's parliament-in-exile has formed a committee to hand over political power from the Dalai Lama, in a signal his devolution of power will get approval despite opposition from lawmakers.
The 75-year-old Dalai Lama, the global face of the Tibetan exiled movement, shocked many Tibetans by announcing he would hand over power, seen as transforming the government-in-exile into a more assertive body in the face of Chinese pressure.
The move comes a day after

MUSCAT - Oman's Sultan Qaboos on Sunday granted legislative power to the previously toothless Oman Council after weeks of anti-government protests in the strategic Gulf state.
"We grant the Oman Council legislative and regulatory powers," said a royal decree carried by ONA state news agency, referring to the elected Majlis Ash-Shura consultative council and the all-appointed Council of State. "A technical committee of specialists is to be formed to propose amendments to the state

BANGKOK - Thailand's prime minister said on Friday he would dissolve the lower house of parliament by early May for what is expected to be a hard-fought election in the politically divided nation. The move would pave the way for a vote in late June or early July as by law polls must be held between 45 and 60 days after house dissolution.
"It's about time for voters to decide what they really want," Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters. "I believe that an election is

ISLAMABAD - The Presidency, as part of preparations for the address of President Asif Ali Zardari to be delivered at the joint session of parliament on March 21, has asked federal ministries and departments to share the achievements they have made in the outgoing parliamentary year so they could be incorporated in the president's speech. The parliament is set to begin its fourth year with the address of the president. NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza will preside over the session when

KABUL - Afghan MPs elected a compromise candidate as speaker of the parliament's lower house on Sunday following weeks of debate and political tension between the two front runners, MPs said. Abdul Raof Ibrahimi, who represents northern Kunduz province and is from the minority Uzbek ethnic group, was elected in a public vote by legislators present at the house, Daud Kalakani, another MP, told AFP.
Former speaker Mohammad Younus Qanooni and warlord Abdulrab Rasoul Sayaf were the

ISLAMABAD - In a rare gesture of cooperation, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) on Thursday joined hands to embarrass Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar in the National Assembly over the unnecessary delays in the introduction of a mass transit system in Karachi.
The heated debate between the legislators of the three coalition partners became a source of delight for the opposition. MQM's Haider Abbas Rizvi, Wasim Akhtar, Dr

ISLAMABAD - Like many other government organizations in which blue eyed bureaucrats are enjoying extensions in service after attaining the superannuation age, as many as 11 top officials in the parliament (National Assembly, Senate) are working on contracts after retirement.
A reliable source in the parliament told Pakistan Today that as many as 7 retired officials were working on contracts in the National Assembly while in the Senate 4 top officials were on extensions after

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament approved eight new ministers on Sunday, filling some crucial posts in the premier's new cabinet but still leaving three sensitive security portfolios and the planning ministry vacant. Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who began a second four-year term in December after striking a power-sharing deal with rival Sunni and Kurdish blocs following a March inconclusive election, appeared before parliament with a list of three cabinet ministers and five state

ISLAMABAD - The meeting of the parliament's National Security Affairs Committee, scheduled to take place on February 15, was cancelled due to resignation of former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Raza Rabbani, chairman of the committee said on Sunday. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was to brief the National Security Affairs Committee about important security issues. The chairman of the committee Raza Rabbani also said that the meeting would be called soon.

CAIRO - Several hundred Egyptian protesters attempted to block parliamentary buildings in Cairo on Wednesday as part of their campaign to oust President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old regime.
The building was protected by troops backed by armoured vehicles, but there was no violence, with protesters instead staging a sit-in to blockade the lower house, just as others have occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Parliament is dominated by Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party

ISLAMABAD - Differences have emerged between the National Assembly and the Senate and their house and library committees on Parliament Lodges' extension issue as MPs from the upper house want to give a go-ahead to the project at their joint meeting scheduled this week while MNAs are all set to resist the move.
Facing resistance from Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan last month after the inauguration of the ground-breaking ceremony of the Rs 3 billion project, Prime

NAYPYIDAW - Myanmar's new junta-dominated parliament opened on Monday as lawmakers assembled in secrecy following a widely panned election for the country's first legislative session since the late 1980s. No foreign media representatives were allowed to witness the event or even take photographs of the new parliament building where elected and designated lawmakers convened in the military regime's purpose-built capital, Naypyidaw.
Police manned checkpoints and barricades leading

PRESS GALLERY - Divided opposition with no common agenda to pursue, government's lackadaisical approach to parliamentary business and the members' "who cares?" attitude with only forty-six - they too possibly having nothing else to do - attending the fourth sitting of the 28th session of the National Assembly convincingly support the proposal to right-size the parliament as well. And when it comes from within, it's far more compelling.
As the House opened a debate on the

ISLAMABAD - Recommendations of Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), on a number of legal and constitutional issues are piling up at the office of the speaker National Assembly and chairman senate as neither Musharraf regime nor the PPP-led government laid these reports before the parliament for discussion.
These reports swathed in dusty files at the parliament house for over a decade now have practically declared the council a redundant entity. The recommendations contain detailed

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai opened Afghanistan's parliament on Wednesday, ending a week-long stand-off with lawmakers who had threatened to inaugurate the legislature with or without him.
The ceremony held in a national assembly compound comes four months after the country held its second post-Taliban parliamentary elections, the results of which have met with massive controversy over claims of widespread fraud. "Congratulations to all of you," Karzai told the lawmakers after

ISLAMABAD - Expressing reservations over the way the country was being governed and parliament being run, the opposition on Monday asked the government to ensure the supremacy of parliament so that other institutions could stay out of the driving seat.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and PML-Q unanimously demanded the government to make parliament meaningful. Faisal Saleh Hayat said Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in his recent statement had levelled charges of bribery on