Lahore, September 04, Members of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab met with Mr. Ejaz Ahmed Khan, MPA (PP-151, Lahore-XV, PML-N) in the chair to discuss the Rules of Business of the Government of the Punjab at a Briefing Session organized by PILDAT. The MPAs demanded that the rules of business of the Government of the Punjab should help in solving the problems of the masses and should be implemented uniformly and should not be politically motivated.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director, PILDAT highlighted the government has to be run under certain set of rules and regulations and the MPAs need to have a role in the formulation and amendment of these rules.

Mr. Rahat Ul Ain, Former Dean, National College of Public Policy, in his presentation put forward a comparison of the rules of business of different countries and highlighted the importance of the Rules of Business of the government. He also shed light on the Procedure of Framing rules in other democracies and the role of Legislature in framing, amending or approving these rules. Mr. Rahat Ul Ain also put forward five recommendations for the consideration of the MPAs for making the rules of business of the government more people friendly.

Dr. Nazir Saeed, Chief Member Judicial, in his talk stressed that the Provincial Government works to provide facilities to the public and the rules should be made to remove all hurdles. He said that there is a need for capacity building of the members of the Provincial Assembly as well as the government officials to develop efficient rules of the business. Rules of the business should be made and implemented at all levels so that everyone can follow and understand these rules.

Mr. Ehsan ul Haq Naulatia, MPA, (PP-153, Muzaffargrah III, PPPP) while talking on the occasion termed the session as very useful for MPAs and declared it as an opportunity to learn about the rules of procedures of the Government of the Punjab. He emphasized the need of making the Standing Committees of the Punjab Assembly more effective so that the Assembly can play its role of oversight. He also suggested that and any amendments to the rules should be made according to the will of the people as it is the MPAs who represent the people. He also demanded that the provincial legislators should be granted role in the subordinate legislation as the case in the neighboring India.

Mr. Ijaz Ahmed Khan, MPA (PP-151, Lahore-XV, PML-N), in his concluding remarks said that these rules are framed by the government for its running and the members of the Provincial Assembly do not have any role in the formulation of these rules. He was of the opinion that the members can amend these rules by passing a resolution in the House. He was however, of the opinion that a greater role should be given to the MPAs as well as a greater role should be played by the MPAs to debate these rules.

The forum was followed by an intense question hour session.

The Briefing Session was attended by Members of the Punjab Assembly, senior bureaucrats and officials of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab.

PILDAT also commissioned a briefing paper, authored by Mr. Rahat ul Ain, titled Punjab Government Rules of Business which was made available to MPAs both in Urdu and English languages.

The Briefing Session has been held and briefing paper has been prepared by PILDAT under the Parliamentary and Political Party Strengthening Project II which is funded through Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). The project is implemented jointly by the Parliamentary Centre, Canada and PILDAT.