Rabbani for live broadcast of parliamentary proceedings

Islamabad
Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani said Friday that only the people of Pakistan could defend the Parliament and they would do so if they had the ownership of the legislatures.
Rabbani contended that it was for this reason that Parliament proceedings should be aired live to create a rapport between the Parliament and the people and a mechanism of transparency was put in place.
He said the present disconnect between the Parliament and the people was creating distrust. In an interactive session with the 7th Batch of Youth Parliament, who called on him at the Parliament House, he said proceedings of the Senate were already streamed live on the official website and the Senate Secretariat was working on setting up its own FM radio stations and television channel. The budget session was broadcast live on PBC's channel and PTV.
However, Rabbani said Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar had given assurance of broadcasting Senate proceedings live on a dedicated PTV channel.
Chairman Senate said Quaid-e-Azam envisaged a welfare state for Pakistan but unfortunately it veered towards a ‘national security state’ or a ‘garrison state’.
He warned the Young Parliament members about the presence of soft jihadists in all institutions, who worked to circumvent anything that went against their patrons. He said, “We have the set of laws for an orderly society but the problem is that we don’t have the collective will to implement it.”
Talking about the civil-military relations, he said the Parliament should initiate a dialogue that permeated to all levels of the society.