Former Governor Shahid Hamid speaking in a consultative session on performance of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab held under the auspices of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) here on Friday averred that Chief Minister and the ministers should be present in the Assembly, so that problem of quorum should be improved.
He said that assemblies should ensure that Ordinances were not issued and more concentration was done on legislative work. He asked the media for focusing on the issues of the people. Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Assembly Rana Mushood speaking in the session dilated that Punjab Assembly in its present tenure had shown performance in the difficult conditions. He talked about initiating an orientation programme in the Assembly.
Deputy Speaker talked of Assembly Website in the Assembly and said that work was being done for the betterment of the Assembly in collaboration with USAID. Mushood suggested of making a benchmark for judging performance in the assembly session. Deputy Speaker said that they for the fist time in the history of the Assembly had conducted pre-budget session. He averred that this practice was being revived from Monday.
Mushood talked of starting an orientation programme in the assembly on the occasion. The Deputy Speaker averred that a normal citizen also wanted to know about the performance of their MPA. Mushood stated that political science students should be able to do internship at the Assembly. He averred that they wanted to groom younger lot and educational institutions should make a trip to the Assembly.
Opposition MPA Mohsin Laghari speaking in the session said that hardly few legislators speak on the issues and this ratio should be improved for the performance of the Assembly. The member asked for making the Committees of the assembly more affluent. He said monitoring of the government was important, as it would enhance the matters of the government.
The MPA averred that in formation of budgets of the department, committees of the Assembly should be involved. Ayesha Javed on the occasion pointed that focus should be on the problems of the people and an enhancement in this direction was needed. She said there should be more focus of legislators on the issues. MPA Chaudhry Javed stated that think tanks should be evolved at the party level. He said treasury was being ignored in the house.
The MPA asked of activating committees at party level. MPA Afzal of the Punjab Assembly on the occasion said rules of the Assembly should be reconsidered for increasing its session for more than seventy days. He said this would give the legislators more time to deliberate on the issues. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director Pildat on the occasion updated the session of their organisation's performance.
He said they were working on the question of transparency of the Assembly and the question of freedom of access of media. He said Pakistan was amongst first countries to have used an IPU Tool Kit for formulating reports. Mehboob said that they had made annual review of 12th National Assembly for five-year tenure and were making this kind of report for the 13th National Assembly.