If govt not serious, Senate session to be prorogued: Rabbani

Absence of ministers

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Friday expressed dismay over the absence of  ministers from the Upper House proceedings and said if the government was not serious in giving due reverence to the Senate, he would prorogue the proceedings.

He said that by design an attempt was made and was still under way to ridicule the role of parliament and that democratic system was ineffective and politicians were incompetent.

“By design, a deliberate attempt has been made which still continues to marginalise and ridicule the role of parliament and inculcate into the minds of the younger generation that system of democracy and parliament is ineffective and politicians are incompetent,” he charged.

Rabbani expressed these views while addressing the certificate award ceremony of the second batch of the short-term internship programme. The internees recently completed their internship with the Senate of Pakistan at the Parliament House.

He said that the programme was initiated with a purpose to familiarising the youth with the working and functioning of parliament and provide them an opportunity to understand the veracity of the claims made by its opponents. “This initiative helps us in understanding the hopes and inspirations of the youth,” Rabbani added.

He termed it a historic moment for the interns as the Senate recently passed a unanimous resolution defining what it believes is the new role of the Senate under the 18th Amendment and in the form of converting Pakistan into a true participatory federal state.

“The resolution expressed the will of the entire House for greater harmony between the Federation and the provinces,” he noted and added that it was a historic document that for the first time in Pakistan’s history, the concept of equality of the two Houses had been taken up and the Senate was struggling for that.

He maintained that in a Federation, both the Houses are equal and added that there was a need for developing a formula for equality of votes between the Senate and the National Assembly to remove disparity in the joint sitting and emphasised the need for empowering the Senate.

Rabbani emphasised that both the Houses of parliament required equal weightage and this was being practised internationally.He wished the interns all the best in their careers ahead and hoped that they would be the ambassadors of not only the Senate but democracy and the Constitution of 1973.

Earlier, Senate Secretary Amjed Pervez also spoke to the participants and said that fresh ideas of the young helped the secretariat to a great extent in improving the functioning of the secretariat.

During the second batch, there were 44 interns from 11 different universities, including 11 from Islamabad and one from Peshawar. This is an indigenous programme of the Senate of Pakistan conceived by the Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani.