LAHORE, Dec 4: Speakers at a workshop stressed the need for orientation of the newly-elected parliamentarians with the intricacies of the legislative process.

The Legislative Capability Building Workshop was organized by the United Nations Development Programme and the Pakistan Institute for Legislative Development and Transparency.

National Assembly’s former speaker Syed Fakhar Imam said that the legislators in Pakistan were disadvantaged as far as the facilities for orientation with the discharge of their duties were concerned.

The power politics overtook the clean politics in parliament as a result of lack of orientation of the legislators with their responsibilities as public representatives.

He pointed out that special arrangements had been made in the US Congress for the orientation of the congressmen elected for the first time with the intricacies of the legislative process but parliamentarians in Pakistan learnt only be default.

He proposed the establishment of an academy for the training of the parliamentarians in legislation and recruitment of PhDs to man the research and reference sections in libraries of the assemblies.

PPP leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that extensive training and orientation facilities existed for the executive but no such arrangements had been made for the parliamentarians with the result that laws were adopted without discussion.

He said that system of committees for study of the draft laws before presentation in the house for approval required to be revived for improving the quality of legislation.

He was of the view that the devolution plan was expected to become a bone of contention in the newly-elected assemblies. The legislators were required to be educated about the pros and cons of the same.

He stressed the need for coordination between the district governments and the legislature for resolving the conflict.

Former federal minister Javed Jabbar stressed the need for increasing the proficiency of the legislators in English language used in all legislation. He said that enhancement of the capabilities of the legislators was necessary for making them true role models for the society.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Syed Safwatullah, said that people in administration had their entire career for learning. The parliamentarians had got only a limited time to learn and perform in accordance with the expectations of the electorate because they were not oriented with the legislation work before their election.

He was of the view that the political parties should make arrangements for proper grooming of the politicians they wanted to represent them in the assemblies.

MMA’s MPA Ehsanullah Waqas said that those thrust on the assemblies under the official patronage tarnished the image of the legislature because of lack of any political legislative training.

He said that the assemblies coming into existence under the Legal Framework Order were not sovereign.

Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) MNA Irfana Tariq stressed the need for defining the constituencies of the MNAs and MPAs elected on the reserved seats.

Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) MNA Pervez Malik stressed the need for capacity building of the legislators to understand the implications of legislation.

He said that the laws made in Pakistan were good. The problem was the enforcement of the laws in letter and spirit.

Dr. Zafar Iqbal said that the politicians talked about the welfare of the common man but the laws framed by them did not conform to their slogans.

He proposed the establishment of a national academy for training of the parliamentarians. The academy should be run under the supervision of veteran politicians.

Senate Deputy Secretary Amjad Pervez said that political parties should make arrangements for the grooming of the people they expect to represent them in the legislatures.

The Indian parliament had made arrangements for the training and orientation of the members in legislation work.

Pakistan Administrative Staff College representative Akhtar Hayat said that legislative training facilities should be created at the federal and provincial level for educating the parliamentarians in discharge of their responsibilities as public representatives.

Women Division Additional Secretary Sohail Safdar briefed the participants about the training imparted to the women councillors of district governments.

British Council representative Iftikhar Elahi proposed training of selected parliamentarians by experts and ask them to train others. He offered English language learning facilities of the British Council to the parliamentarians.

Asif Luqman said that empowerment of parliament should be the ultimate goal of the legislators because it was not sovereign at present. He said that parliament should legislate and judiciary and executive should enforce the laws.

Nawazul Haq from the National Institute of Public Administration said that legislative bills were drafted by the executive because of lack of empowerment of parliament.

The executive was also entrusted with the drafting of the rules for implementation of the laws adopted by the legislature and killed the spirit of the same during the process.

He proposed creation of a legislative service for handling the legislation work for the assemblies.

Senate Research Officer Tariq Junaid pointed out that most of the legislators were preoccupied with their personal agenda during their tenure in office. They did not visit the libraries to benefit from the research facilities available there.

Millat Party leader Shahbaz said that government should make arrangements for the training of the legislators for improving their performance.

Farhat Pervez Saleh proposed holding of short orientation courses for the assembly members during the sessions.

Institution of Engineers President Engineer M.P. Gangwani said that the present assemblies comprised educated people who could be groomed as good legislators by proper training.

Dr. Soccorro Reys, Ahmad Bilal Mahboob, Neelofer S. Hafeez, Doniya Aziz, Rashida Dohad, Saima Bano Kazim, Abdul Qadir, Tariq Hamid, Sikandar Shami, Shahbaz Shanwari, Iftikhar Elahi and Arshad Bhatti also spoke.