'Amendments needed to improve legislation in K-P'

Speakers urge passage of more amendments for development

PESHAWAR: There is a need to make amendments for improving the legislative process in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, speakers said during an orientation session at the provincial assembly’s Procedure and Conduct of Business for Rules.

The United Rural Development Organisation (URDO) had arranged a session with journalists in this regard in Peshawar. During the session, it was pointed out that K-P’s Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, which was first time outlined in 1973 and last time in 1988, in which only a total of 10 amendments have been made so far, while the last amendment was made in the year 2015.

URDO is working across multiple development sectors including education, human rights peace, democracy, gender and reproductive health and other community development sectors across Pakistan, particularly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and its tribal region.

So far, URDO has been actively involved in good governance, peacebuilding, human rights, reproductive health, women empowerment, HIV/AIDS prevention, and community development, capacity development of the local government representatives, networking among governmental organisations, civil society, and communities.

During the session, it was highlighted that for the purpose to improve the procedure more amendments should be prioritised for the development.

The URDO Executive Director Zahir Khattak said that his organisation had forwarded 108 recommendations to the K-P Assembly through the Provincial Governance Support Group for introducing amendments to the rules and business.

It was mentioned that the provincial assembly 11 standing committees had failed to arrange even a single meeting in a year.

Rao Akram Khurram Advocate while sharing the proposed amendments and suggestions said that it was need of the hour to improve the procedure so that the proceeding of the provincial legislature could be brought at par with the modern democratic world

He added some definitions need clarification for easy access of the lawmakers as well as the public. First of all the process of election of the speaker should be made easy as in present rules outgoing speaker has to preside over the election process and in case of a tie, his/her vote would be decisive even if not elected member at the time. For communication to members about the early call of setting, it should be intimated through an announcement on all the communication mediums such as radio, TV, websites and sending SMS and by sending emails at authentic email addresses.

During the session, another amendment was suggested that the speaker should ascertain quorum at the commencement of each setting and at a time of voting on bills and resolutions.

The speaker shall ascertain from minister whether any undertaking, statement, promise or commitment made on the floor of the House is government assurance. In the rules of business, the word chairman should be replaced with chairperson for the panel of chairmen.

Working days of the session or sitting should also be defined along with timing as sometimes a sitting lasts just for a few minutes. The suggestion also includes increasing the time of a question on the agenda and limiting supplementary question over a question raised on the floor of the House.

It was also suggested that the privilege committee meeting should be convened within a week and its report should be submitted with a month.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2019.