Islamabad; March 21st, 2019: Asad Qaiser Speaker National Assembly has said that parliament being the representative of people should legislate for the welfare of the masses and the role of standing committees cannot be denied in this regard.  He said that Standing committees have the importance of backbone in the parliamentary basic functions of legislation and scrutiny especially the role of standing committees for accountability of Executive is of prime importance. “To scrutinize and making the legislation realistic the standing committees can play a proactive role for resolving the issues faced by masses in Pakistan” he added. He expressed these views while addressing the inaugural ceremony of two days workshop “Orientation on Functions and Working of Standing Committees “organized for the chairpersons of the standing committees of the National Assembly of Pakistan at Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services in Islamabad on Thursday.

The speaker said that it is his priority to strengthen the standing committee in National Assembly as he stressed for finding out of the box solutions to resolve the issues faced during working of the standing committees. He said the role of Chairpersons in the functioning of these committees is of prime importance therefore the chairpersons of standing committees should be well aware regarding the functions of their respective committees. He assured the chairpersons that the standing committees would be provided expertise and research based input. He also said that Strategic plan for next five years would take special initiative for making standing committees more proactive and effective.  He assured the chairpersons that he would hold regular meeting with them to resolve the issues hamper the working of committees.

The chairpersons of the standing committee expressed gratitude for the Speaker to grace this occasion and appreciated the speaker’s efforts for breaking the deadlock in the formation of standing committees. They hoped that the speaker would continue his efforts to strengthen the standing committees. They also put forth the issues faced by them during the working of the committees and gave fruitful suggestion to strengthen committees system and assured the speaker their all out cooperation and support in this regard.

The Chairpersons present in the workshop were: Syed Amin Ul Haque Chairman Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat, Mr. Faiz Ullah Chairman Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Malik Muhammad Ehsan Ullah Tiwana Chairman Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sajid Hussain Turi Chairman Standing Committee on Industries and Production, Mr. Riaz Fatyana Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Muhammad Mueen Watto Chairman Standing Committee on Railways, Mr. Sajid Mehdi Chairman Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Mr. Sajid Khan Chairman Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions and Syed Mustafa Mehmood Chairman Standing Committee on Privatization.