Powerful standing committees in the offing

‘Report on proposed amendments to be presented to Speaker in January’


Aroosa Shaukat December 30, 2015
A file photo of Punjab Assembly. PHOTO: EXPRESS

LAHORE: Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997 are in the offing, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A report carrying proposed amendments, prepared by a special committee, had been vetted by the law minister, said Azma Zahid Bukhari, the chairperson of the standing committee on the Law and Parliamentary Affairs.

She said the committee was now expected to present the report to the Speaker in the next session of the Punjab Assembly (in January).

She said more powers were proposed in the report for the PA standing committees. She said under the existing rules the standing committees lacked authority to review a law on their own. “The standing committees only deal with matters referred to them by the House,” she said. There was no session of the L&PA committee in 2015 because no matter was referred to it, she said.

The PA is run under the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab (amended) 1997. Besides legislative activity, the rules also set out mechanisms for accountability of the government.

Leader of the Opposition in the PA Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said amendments to the rules were long overdue. He said both standing committees and the public accounts committees were powerless under the existing rules. “Strong standing committees will empower elected representatives to hold the bureaucracy accountable for its actions,” he said. Rasheed, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, said the lack of suo moto powers had rendered the committee ineffective.

Independent observers of PA proceedings welcomed the move but said that it remained to be seen if the proposed amendments were adequate.

Shahzad Anwer, the manager of a Parliament Watch Programme at the Free And Fair Election Network (FAFEN), said the rules were last amended in 2008.

He said his team was also preparing a report carrying proposals regarding changes to the rules of procedure. He intended to present the proposals to the lawmakers in January.

Anwer said under the existing rules only an hour a day was reserved for questions. “It is a very short duration,” he said.

Among other areas needing revisions he mentioned the procedure to seek extension in time allotted for submitting of reports on bills and to inquiry into ministers’ absence from sessions and the role of standing committees.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2015.

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