ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly for the first time in its history will launch National Assembly Strategic Plan (NASP) 2015-2018 tomorrow (Monday).

"These reforms are aimed at moving away from the traditional piecemeal approach to a more holistic approach, ensuring that the entire House benefits from the reform process," the spokesman for NA secretariat Mehboob Ali Gurmani told DawnNews.

This strategic plan has been made under the supervision of Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, who formed a Strategic Planning Oversight Committee (SPOC), with representation from all major political parties, to ensure sustainability and continuity of previous useful measures.

The cornerstone of the strategic plan is to ensure that National Assembly moves away from conventional working environment, which is deemed to be outdated, to a more modern, professional and automated form of working.

Information Communication and Technology (ICT) reforms are one of the six goals that will be cross cutting through the five goals which drive the NASP.

Five key goals set under the strategic plan are as follows:

• Strengthen all aspects of legislation making it effective andbeneficial to Pakistanis

• Ensure that oversight is enabled at all times and across all platformsparticularly for parliamentary committees assuring transparency,accountability and judicious use of time and resources

• Safeguard the integrity of the assembly by improving itsrepresentative role

• Move from the traditional mode of working towards an automatede-parliament by undertaking structured reforms in InformationCommunication and Technology (ICT)

• Strengthen PIPS (Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services) intoa premier training and research institute for members and staff ofthe National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies

Strategic Planning Oversight Committee (SPOC) deliberated upon development of the NASP 2015-2018 with the assistance of the Project Management Unit (PMU) and the EU-funded Improving Parliamentary Performance in Pakistan (IP3) project.

During the reforms process, strategic plans and literature of successful and progressive parliaments, like Britain's House of Commons, parliament of South Africa and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), were reviewed and incorporated making the reforms compatible with the practices of the Pakistani parliament.

The NA secretariat spokesman said, "Working and implementation the strategy of NASP 2015-18 will show high rewards in days to come and it will improve the efficiency and quality of work of the House."