National Assembly Acting Speaker Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob on Monday said the role of parliament was vital in terms of evolving national consensus and linkages between civil society, political parties and the communities. Addressing the inaugural session of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association's (CPA) Post-Election Parliamentary Seminar here, Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob said parliamentarians could play an important role for the welfare of common-man at national and the constituency level.
He said legislatures, as representative of citizens, undertake two important functions of legislation and oversight, adding if legislature discharge those two functions properly, the objective of good governance could be achieved.
Sardar Yaqoob said the present parliament in Pakistan had got a new and dynamic outlook and said it was for the first time the highest number of women had returned to the parliament because of reserved seats provided in the constitution.
He said due to compulsory requirement of graduation for parliamentarians, there was good number of highly educated legislators with many of them having professional background.
He said the legislatures had been actively participating in the international and regional forums of parliamentarians.
Sardar Yaqoob said inter-parliamentary organisations like CPA provide an important mechanism to strengthen bilateral relations and regional co-operation between parliaments and governments.
He added those forums also provided a significant opportunity to benefit from the experiences of various countries in a range of fields. He said the CPA's effort to extend its co-operation to Pakistan was a welcome development for legislatures.
He said Pakistan had a historic and long-lasting relationship with Commonwealth countries and it had been playing its role very actively in the organisation since its inception.
He appreciated the efforts of CPA for holding parliamentary seminar and expressed hope that the seminar would go a long way in providing orientation and understanding of contemporary legislative affairs.
MP Cheryl Gillan of CPA said the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, being a representative inter-parliamentary body of commonwealth countries, had been striving for co-operation between the member parliaments.
She hailed the role of President General Pervez Musharraf in fight against international terrorism. She congratulated Pakistan for having full membership to the Commonwealth and said democratic institutions were strengthening in Pakistan.
Niall Johnston of CPA said the Commonwealth had accepted Pakistan membership due to significant progress in the democracy in present era of Musharraf government.
He said Commonwealth was a voluntary association of independent sovereign states, consulting and co-operating in the common interests of their people, and in the promotion of international understanding and world peace.
Niall said the mission of CPA was to promote the advancement of parliamentary democracy by enhancing knowledge and understanding of democratic governance.
He said CPA was working with other international organisations and institutions, which were engaged with the parliaments aimed at good governance, accountability, poverty reduction and fight against diseases.
Comments
Comments are closed.