Bill for increasing Balochistan’s NA, PA seats to be tabled in NA

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani on Wednesday revealed that a bill for increasing the number of National Assembly and Provincial Assembly seats for Balochistan will be introduced during the fresh session of the Senate, proposing addition of another 13 seats to the National Assembly and 30 to the provincial legislature.

Chairman Senate said in the proposed bill there was a consideration to increase number of the National Assembly seats to 30 and that of the Provincial Assembly to 80. He said that there was a need for strong linkages and coordination among the provincial assemblies, National Assembly and the Senate for promoting democratic and parliamentary traditions in the country.

Sanjrani explained consultations were being held with all the parties in the Parliament in this regard and ‘in principle, all parties had shown their interest in giving more representation to the area-wise largest province in the Parliament and of course to its people in the Provincial Assembly.

He expressed these views while talking to chairmen of the committees and the officials of Balochistan Assembly, who called on him here at the Parliament House. During the meeting, it was learnt that some legislators pointed out that there was also a need to ponder over Balochistan’s role in election of a prime minister, as presently only two main provinces had the say on this count.

The general seats of Balochistan in the National Assembly are 16. However, one seat fell vacant last month when the Election Commission of Pakistan disqualified the MNA was elected from NA-259 in the last year’s general elections. Its share of reserved seats for women is four. Likewise, the Provincial Assembly consists of a total of 65 seats of these 51 are general seats, whereas eleven are reserved for women and three for minorities. The members of delegation, who called on the Chairman Senate, are attending a capacity building event tiled Essentials of Effective Committee Performance for the chairs/members of the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan at Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS) organised with the assistance of UNDP. Sanjrani said the Upper House of the Parliament would continue to play its effective role for this coordination among the federating units. He said that the committee system in the Senate was proactive and ‘we are trying to share our experience with the provincial assemblies for effective law making at provincial level’.

He said the PIPS would also organise courses for the bureaucracy and secretaries of the Provincial Assembly’s committees in addition to the members of the provincial assemblies. He added that the institute would also organise special training programme for a joint group of the members of all provincial assemblies in Gwadar with the assistance of UNDP.

The chairman Senate noted that an amendment was also under consideration for making a parliamentary course mandatory for all the officers of the federal and provincial governments as well as other public sector organisations to create awareness about the working of the Parliament and implementation of the relevant laws.

Earlier, Additional Secretary Senate Hafeezullah Shaikh briefed the delegation about the working of the committee system in the Upper House of the Parliament. The delegation headed by Syed Ahsan Shah included MPAs Ahmad Nawaz Baloch, Qadir Ali Nayel, Akbar Mengal, Secretary Provincial Assembly of Balochistan Safdar Hussain, Special Secretary Tahir Shah Kakar, Executive Director PIPS Muhammad Rashid Mafzool Zaka, UNDP representatives and officials of the Balochistan Assembly.

Meanwhile, Speaker National Asad Qaiser called on the Chairman Senate here at the Parliament House. Both discussed at length the prevailing situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir and the development emerging due to change in status of the Indian Occupied Kashmir by the Indian government.

It was decided in the meeting that joint parliamentary delegations would be sent to different countries of the world to highlight the Kashmir issue and raise awareness about the atrocities being committed by the Indian occupied forces in the IHK. The joint delegations would comprise of the members of both Houses and representatives of Kashmiris and will hold meetings with the international parliamentarians, parliamentary bodies and human right organisations across the world.

The Foreign Office and embassies of Pakistan abroad would schedule the meetings with these groups and plan the other activities to be participated by the joint parliamentary delegations for highlighting the cause of Kashmir.