PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has initiated a set of reforms which would ensure transparency, documentation, record keeping, capacity building of members and in particular regularly channelizing the inclusion of public opinion in each and every piece of legislation.
This was revealed at a meeting of the Project Steering committee on capacity building with a mission of the European Union, held under the chairmanship of Speaker Provincial Assembly, Asad Qaisar.
Provincial Minister Anisazeb Tahirkhieli, Special Assistants, Abdul Munim Khan, Dr. Amjad Ali, MPAs Jafar Shah, Zargul Khan, Sardar Aurangzeb Nalutha and representatives of PIPS (Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services) were present at the meeting.
Speaker Asad Qaisar while talking to the meeting said the reforms initiated by the provincial government with the support of the elected representatives were not limited to strengthening institutions of the government but extended to legislation too.
He said by institutionalizing the capacity building of the MPAs, the requirements of the future elected MPAs were also kept in view, therefore, in future all relevant rules and regulations will be dispatched to the MPAs immediately after issuance of their notifications by the Election Commission.
Briefing the participants Minister Anisa Zeb Tahirkhieli who also chairs the Steering committee on capacity building disclosed that six groups of the MPAs have studied different parliaments of the world while the 7th was about to leave. While almost all the MPAs had already been imparted IT training with the help of which use of the paper based resources is decreasing day by day as more and more MPAs were switching to the soft (I.T) resources saving resources of time and energies, she said.
She also disclosed that capacity building of the female MPAs has been specially focused, which was encouraging the female members to activity participate and play their due role in almost all assembly businesses unlike the past when they were silent spectators.
She also briefed the participants of the meeting in detail about the proposed work plan of the Steering Committee which she said extended to the working of Public Account Committee, process of budget making, debating legislation, institutions strengthening, transparency, and accountability.
The members of the European Union and representatives of Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS) appreciated the working of the committee and assured the participants of their total cooperation.
