Towards an Asian parliament: Asian Parliamentary Assembly gets under way

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate of Pakistan is going to host the Troika-Plus meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) from May 27 to 28 in Islamabad.

Around 40 delegates from different countries including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cambodia, Indonesia, Iran, Jordon and Syria have reached Islamabad for the meeting, which is working on the theme “Transformation of APA into Asian Parliament”.

Senate chairman and Asian Parliamentary Assembly President Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, the National Assembly of Cambodia First Vice President Nguon Nhel and the deputy speaker of the Syrian parliament will address the inaugural session.

In the first two sessions, the meeting would adopt an agenda and discuss the implementation of the decisions of the sixth plenary session held in Islamabad in December. It includes working out a strategy for gradual transformation of APA into an Asian Parliament.

In the concluding session, the report of the Troika plus meeting and Islamabad Communiqué would also be adopted.

In December last year, the Senate of Pakistan hosted 240 delegates from 31 countries in the sixth plenary of the APA.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2014.