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Thursday March 28, 2024

Parliamentary Studies launched in universities

ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday said that freedom does not mean insulting anyone and one does not have the right to force one’s way on others.“On the contrary, it is all about recognising one’s limits and respecting religious, social, political and cultural diversity. For these are

By Asim Yasin
February 10, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday said that freedom does not mean insulting anyone and one does not have the right to force one’s way on others.
“On the contrary, it is all about recognising one’s limits and respecting religious, social, political and cultural diversity. For these are the defining lines between a functional democracy and a disastrous anarchy,” he said while addressing the launching of Parliamentary Studies in leading national and private universities of the country here at the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Studies (PIPS).
The brainchild of the Speaker, the programme is aimed at inculcating the importance of democracy, its role in national development and the scope and working of the parliamentary institutions among the youth through classroom instruction.
Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said it’s a day when a new beginning is being made by forging common alliance among the parliamentary and the academic leaderships to protect, preserve and promote democracy, freedoms and parliamentary institutions. “And to turn this dream into a formidable reality, our respective leaderships are planting these values in the young hearts and minds of our nation,” he added.
He said the Parliamentary Studies course intends to integrate the very ideals in the formal scheme of schooling and it resolves to assure the young students that the days of arbitrary rule are over.
He said it aims to instill them with the qualities of accommodation and acceptance and it imbibes them with values of tolerance, peace and harmony. “What is more, it is focused to teach them the essentials, skills of legal understanding and legislative drafting to become capable parliamentary workforce of tomorrow,’ he added.
The Speaker National Assembly said but more than anything, this Parliamentary Course is designed to teach them every day that Pakistan was created as an expression of the free will of the people. It can be kept together, in unity and strength through this free will.
He said Pakistan’s saga is the deviation from this chosen path as the successive usurpers of power did not only infringe upon the Quaid’s vision of a democratic Federal Parliamentary Pakistan, but they also filled the textbooks with fallacy and fiction. The Speaker said no textbook documents the unsung heroes of the democratic struggle —— the ones Faiz Ahmad Faiz ardently referred as “the unknown martyrs of the dark alleys”.
He said no classroom fulfils the moral obligation of preparing youths to be active participants in a social democracy and become leaders of tomorrow. “No institution trains them to become qualified parliamentary workforce to advance the ideals of good legislation, adequate oversight and genuine representation,” he added.
The Speaker said is it not a national dilemma that while enjoying the fruits of freedom, the youth has little knowledge about the enormous sacrifices rendered by the political workers to win and protect all such constitutional rights. “Is it not unfortunate that for the sake of petty gains, the youth of the country has been misled, kept miss-informed and used for mob-rule! Is it not a criminal neglect that no law school in the country offers “Legislative Drafting” as an independent discipline and hence we lack able draftsmen to write good laws,” he questioned.
He said this neglect, Ladies and Gentlemen, provides the answer for a fragile democracy, of weak institutions and a troubled federation. “It is time to rectify the errors of the past. It is time to rediscover the very Pakistan that the founding fathers had dreamed of. I therefore urge upon the academia to help Pakistan in building a strong democracy,” he added.
The Speaker said I assure you all on behalf of the Parliament and indeed on behalf of all provincial legislatures that on every step, we will be readily available for any help, advise and assistance for the successful implementation of this programme. “I am directing the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services to keep close contact with all universities and regularly engage with them to monitor the progress,” he added.
On our part, he said it would be the greatest pleasure of all our respective legislatures to open our doors for the students of the new course as interns and researchers and employ the graduates of the new discipline as our competent workforce.
He concluded his speech with reminding that democracy is not a product but a process and the inauguration of this course is also not an end in itself. “It’s only a beginning. It’s a beginning to build a new democratic polity of accommodation, respect and tolerance. It’s a beginning to create informed public opinion and enlighten young minds. It’s a beginning to lay the foundations of strengthened institutions to take up the challenges of time with able and apt workforce. It’s a beginning to honour history and connect it with the future,” he ended.