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Friday March 29, 2024

Senate celebrates its 42nd birthday

Islamabad For the first time since it came into being, the Senate Thursday celebrated its 42nd birthday amid calls for making it more powerful, urging the National Assembly to also change its attitude and accept the forum as upper house of the parliament. Legislators shared complete consensus that empowering the

By Mumtaz Alvi
August 08, 2015
Islamabad
For the first time since it came into being, the Senate Thursday celebrated its 42nd birthday amid calls for making it more powerful, urging the National Assembly to also change its attitude and accept the forum as upper house of the parliament.
Legislators shared complete consensus that empowering the Senate would strengthen the federation, being the largest forum to safeguard and promote interests of the four provinces.
The House held a discussion to mark the historic occasion. The Senate had its first ever session on August 06, 1973 at the old State Bank building here. The speakers heaped praise on the
Senate Chairman, Mian Raza Rabbani, for a sea-change in the outlook of the Senate and getting it recognised as a vibrant legislature and this added to its dignity. Rabbani, however, attributed these achievements to a collective struggle and wisdom of the Senate.
Leader of the House, Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq, pointed out that the Senate had asserted itself for the first time.
However, he emphasised that if the Senate were to play a truly important role, then the National Assembly would have to review its attitude and accept the Senate as the Upper House.
Underlining the importance of the House standing committees, the veteran lawmaker acknowledged these panels had been playing a very important role and cautioned it would be a national loss, if the Senate were not be given representation in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
“Due representation to the Senate in PAC as per the strength of its members
will add to its strength,” Raja Zafar emphasised and also proposed formation of the joint standing committees of the Senate and the National Assembly with regards
to foreign affairs,
defence, finance and Kashmir affairs.
He believed this would not only save time and money but also make the parliament more effective and powerful. The senator also wanted that matters in the Senate should be taken forward with a large heart and openness.
In his remarks, Rabbani paid tributes to Raja Zafar for guiding him and encouraging him in his endeavors to make the House assertive, effective and powerful. He emphasised that the Senate needed to have some more powers and was hopeful that some of these the House might get during their tenure and some afterwards.
Rabbani said that the Senate would be able to get these powers with constant struggle and sincerity, as the legislature represented the federation and Pakistan’s constitution too was federal. “The federalism underlines the need the Senate should have more powers and as per the House Business Advisory Committee’s decision, in the second phase, to start in next few weeks, more powers for the Senate will be top of the agenda,” he noted.
He said it was also to be seen how to establish a link of the Senate with its respective constituencies i.e. the provincial legislatures so that related issues could be taken up more effectively.
The Senate chairman recalled how the Senate had played a crucial role against dictatorship and for the continuity of democracy, saying the Senate would play this role in future too, if any similar situation cropped up.
Senators, who took part in the discussion, included Usman Kakar of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, the National Party’s Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Saeed Ghani of PPP, Ilyas Bilour of Awami National Party, Mushahid Hussain Syed of PML-Q, Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldeni of Balochistan National Party-Mengal, Mian Attique of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Azam Swati, the ruling PML-N’s Mushahidullah Khan, Deputy Chairman Senate Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri.
Some Senators blamed their colleagues in the past for not pushing enough for making the House more powerful and said that a powerful Senate would be successful in resolution of the federations’ issues. They said that overlooking genuine demands and issues of the smaller provinces had given way to militancy and voices of freedom.
The legislators acknowledged that once the Senate was dubbed by many a debating club but today it plays a very important role and demanding more powers. They contended that for making the federation stronger, the Senate would have to be made more powerful.
The Supreme Court’s historic judgement that the military courts would stay also echoed in the House and it was welcomed that only the parliament had the right to legislate.
Senators from Balochistan wanted legislative and
financial powers for the Senate and insisted that rights must be given on time, as delay bread unrest and at times hatred.
It was lamented that the two military dictators had sent the Senate packing in 1970s and in 1999. Raja Nargis Khan, who was a member of the first Senate, was among the former senators, who were seen in the galleries, including Anwar Bhinder and Jan Muhammad Jamal Jamali, who served as deputy chairman of the Senate.