ISLAMABAD: The Senate is set to amend its rules on Monday (today) to pave the way for creation of the first parliamentary think tank in the country which will “study questions of public importance” and “recommend policy options and solutions”.

The think tank called the Senate Forum for Policy Research is being formed with the approval of all main political parties on the treasury and opposition benches. This is evident from the fact that the motion to amend the rules will be jointly moved by the Leader of the House, Raja Zafarul Haq, PPP’s Raza Rabbani and PML-Q’s Mushahid Hussain Sayed when the house will meet after a two-day recess.

Through the motion, the senators will approve insertion of eight new rules (rules 269 to 276) in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012, according to the agenda of the Senate session.

The rules define the composition, functions and responsibilities of the forum, which will provide “input on policy issues” to the Senate.

The forum will comprise 16 members of the Senate — eight sitting and as many former members. The members will be “nominated” by the Senate chairman in his capacity as the patron of the forum, in consultation with the parliamentary leaders in the house.

The members will have tenures of three years and the Senate chairman will nominate new members within 30 days of the commencement of the term of newly-elected members of the house.

The chairman of the forum will be elected from among its members in its first meeting after its establishment or reconstitution and the Senate secretary will be its ex-officio secretary.

Rule 273 has defined 16 functions and responsibilities of the proposed forum, according to which it will assist and advise, as and when required, the Senate, chairman, committees, members and secretariat of the Senate.

The main function of the forum will be to “study questions of public importance that are already under consideration or likely to come up before the Senate and recommend policy options/solutions”.

It will act as an “ideas generation and support forum” for members of the Senate to help them discharge their functions. Besides, it will “promote partnership amongst sitting and former members of the Senate.”

The forum will hold workshops, seminars and other programmes and an annual general meeting of former and sitting senators will be its main event.

It will “suggest ways and means to enhance the efficiency, working and effectiveness” of Senate committees, besides compiling knowledge generated by Senate proceedings and committee reports and proceedings and disseminating it at international and regional parliamentary conferences.

Another important task to be performed by the forum will be to keep the compendium of laws updated, year-wise and subject-wise, and to prepare a statute book to be kept under the custody of Senate chairman.

Besides compiling and supervising a book on parliamentary practices and procedures with special reference to parliament of the country, the forum will also compile the best speeches of senators and a book containing the rulings of Senate chairmen issued from time to time.

It will suggest ways and means to promote democratic traditions and principles and to coordinate activities between the National Assembly and the Senate, particularly with reference to private members’ bills, recommendations made by the Senate to the assembly in respect of the finance bill and matters related to special committees/joint committees, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

The forum will advise and assist the legislative drafting unit and research cell of the Senate and the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Studies, an institute which imparts training to lawmakers.

It will advise donor agencies about parliamentary development programmes.

The forum will hold a meeting at least once in two months. But a majority of the members can requisition a meeting at any time.

All decisions of the forum will be made by a majority of the members present in the meeting.

It will present the annual report of its activities to the Senate in the first session after the beginning of a financial year, which may discuss the report and issue any directive.

The forum will have the status of a standing committee and its expenses will be borne by the Senate.

Talking to Dawn, Senator Mushahid Hussain termed the creation of the forum an achievement and expressed the hope that it would strengthen the role of parliament, particularly in policy-making on key national issues.

Answering a question, he said empowering the Senate chairman to nominate members of the forum could create a problem as the members of the house could raise objections to it. But, he said, the members would sort out the issues through consultation because the Senate was a mature institution.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2014