Senate committees in search of space to set up offices

ISLAMABAD: Many of the Senate standing committees are in search of space to establish offices, as there is also a proposal to give live coverage to the proceedings.
For instance, according to sources in the Senate Secretariat, in Australia, the standing committees during their meetings receive live calls for perusal and their referral to the chairman if necessary.
Head of the Senate Standing Committee on Less Developed Areas, Usman Kakar of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party complained that their committees had got less coverage on media.
On Friday, Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani presided over a meeting of the Council of Chairmen here at the Senate of Pakistan. After listening to ideas and concerns of the committees chairmen and members, Rabbani said he was hopeful that the issues of Senate standing committees would be resolved soon to ensure their smooth functioning.
The Senate chairman said the Senate Secretariat was negotiating with the government on acquiring appropriate office space in vicinity of the Parliament s building. He pointed out that he was also in touch with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in this regard, who pledged all-out support for resolving Senate’s accommodation problems.
On the matter of attendance in standing committees, he said members would now have to file leave applications with the chairmen and that their attendance sheet will be displayed on Senate’s website for the sake of transparency. He said the chairmen and members of the standing committees would start getting recorded verbatims on CDs and that the Senate Secretariat was working on hiring Pakistani professionals and experts to assist standing committees through UNDP and Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Rabbani revealed the Senate would soon introduce an internship policy whereby boys and girls with Masters or doctorate degrees will be selected from all provinces to work at the Senate Secretariat for a year and a half. Under the same policy boys and girls still in universities will also be given an opportunity to work here for a brief period against academic credits or during summer break. He said the standing committees had the suo moto powers to summon officers in their respective ministries to meetings within the Parliament House. The council of chairmen meeting was attended by a large number of standing committee heads who discussed their issues including improvement of basic amenities, minutes, working papers and so on and urged for live coverage of committee proceedings.