July 7; PILDAT has welcomed the announcement made by the Honourable Speaker National Assembly about the introduction of a transparent and merit-based hiring process in the National Assembly Secretariat through the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC).

PILDAT, which has been working since 2002 to improve the quality of democracy and governance in Pakistan, has over the years made the recommendation of routing the recruitment in all Parliamentary Secretariat through the FPSC.

The decision, according to the Honourable Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, MNA, was made to re-structure the National Assembly Secretariat driven by the three-pronged objective of merit, task-identification and the economy.

In a letter addressed to the Honourable Speaker, PILDAT has further recommended that the aforementioned initiative should also be made part of the Rules of Procedure for the National Assembly to ensure that the process is made permanent and is also followed by subsequent Assemblies.

PILDAT has also recommended that in addition, promotions of the Assembly Staff should also be made subject to their successful completion of courses at the National School of Public Policy in order to better train and increase the performance of the staff.