Quality legislation: NA Speaker for strengthening standing bodies

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said that there is a need to strengthen the standing committees of the House for ensuring quality legislation.

The speaker expressed these views while chairing the first meeting of the National Assembly Strategic Plan Committee Special in Parliament House, Islamabad on Wednesday.

He said that enhancing parliamentary outreach is key to abridging space between public representatives and the public.

He expressed, “Digitalisation is key to transforming Parliament into a goal-orientated organisation that produces quality and public responsive legislation.”

He further emphasised the need to strengthen parliamentary staff through robust training.

While emphasising the need to evolve a strong monitoring system for enhancing the efficiency of parliamentary supporting staff, he said that proper training and effective performance evaluation could render them more productive.

“Women Parliamentary Caucus, Secretariat of Sustainable Development Goals, Young Parliamentarians Forum, Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS), and other parliamentary forums play proactive roles in enhancing parliamentary efficiency.”

Furthermore, he said that rationalisation of the budget as per the strategic plan would make it more implementable and rational.

While deliberating upon the contours for the formation of the strategic plan, Committee members, unanimously, decided to make a strategic plan led by parliamentarians.

MNA Syed Naveed Qamar has said that social media has gained undeniable importance in their age of social media and developing an independent proactive social media department to engage common users in parliamentary activities.

MNA Nafisa Shah highlighted the importance of magnifying the constitutional role of Parliament, assessing members’ engagement, and taking beneficial insight from parliamentary staff would make the strategic plan more feasible and productive.

Meanwhile, MNA Bilal Kiayni also briefed the committee about the in-depth and marathon exercise undertaken under Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to interview each employee of the National Assembly.

Federal Minister for IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja highlighted the need to modernise and digitalise the parliament. She also said that the provision of efficient services to Parliamentarians must also be the focus of the Strategic Plan.

Roomina Khursheed Alam Special Assistant to Prime Minister also expressed the need to make PIPS more proactive.

MNA Sharmila Farooqi expressed displeasure on the poor quality of support provided by the PIPS staff deputed in the National Assembly.

Deputy Speaker National Assembly Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, MNAs Shahram Khan Taraqai, Zain Hussain Qureshi, Munaza Hassan, Nafisa Shah, Mohsin Laghari, former ED PIPS Zafrullah, Yasmeen Rehman, and senior officers of PIPS and National Assembly Secretariat also attended the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024