Parliament made ‘little relevant’ in security affairs, says Rabbani

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani complained on Tuesday that parliament had not been given due role in matters relating to defence, national security, foreign and nuclear policies all along as these fields have been strictly controlled by the civil-military bureaucracy.

He said that civil-military bureaucracy wanted to cling to power and the younger generation was made to remain either apolitical or become averse to politics. He continued that the curricula books of different classes mention less about the constitutional history and had unfortunately glorified the military dictatorships.

Rabbani was addressing participants of training programme at Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (Pips). He said that these domains were being strictly cocnrolled by the civil-military bureaucracy, thus creating an impression that Pakistan was incapable and inept to the fast-changing national and regional scene.

Rabbani made it clear that the future of Pakistan lies in true participatory federalism as envisaged by the Quaid-e-Azam in his speech to the Constituent Assembly. 

While replying to various questions, Rabbani termed it unfortunate that the concept of welfare state was overwhelmed by the National Security or a garrison state and the role of parliament was marginalised by giving an impression that the parliament was no more than a debating club and the politicians enjoy privileges.

Rabbani proposed to the Pips to initiate a programme for the matric level students as well to change the thinking of the younger generation towards democracy and democratic system. He said that the Senate has signed MOUs with different universities and has initiated a “Clerks of the Parliament” programme. 

He said that institutional linkages, like other progressive countries, were developed between parliament and the universities to acquaint the students with legislative process and Senate Secretariat also benefited from the fresh commitment and passion of the interns.

Rabbani also informed the participants about the intra institutional dialogue among the provinces started by the Senate of Pakistan. The Chief Justice of Pakistan, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, addressed the Committee of the Whole. He underscored the need for intra institutional dialogue to rid the country of the quagmire of uncertainty and put the country on the track towards a welfare state.

He said that parliament has been transparent and benefits of democracy need to reach at the grass root level to make people believe that parliament truly reflects the wishes and aspirations of the people. Rabbani was hopeful that such fruitful interactions and training sessions would go a long way in shaping the country’s future.