Parliament

By Q. Zaman - Parliamentary committees are one of the most important mechanisms by which legislatures hold state institutions accountable, question executive policies, investigate issues of public concern and examine bills referred to

By Tahir Niaz –  How bills are getting stuck in Senate With the ruling PML-N only having sixteen seats in the Upper House of the Parliament, it could do little at the legislative front in its first parliamentary year. The ruling party struggled to get support of

By Tahir Niaz – The latest parliamentary scam Amidst increasing concerns about corruption and its impact in general on development in the country, federal lawmakers have plundered millions of rupees from the national exchequer under the garb of medical treatment they are legally entitled to. At a time when more than half of the country’s […]

By Mirza Khurram Shahzad –  Trying to stay relevant, Dasti picks the wrong vice The parliament in Pakistan has never come up to the expectations of people. People who are badly hit by the terrorism, law and order woes, inflation and poverty look to the parliament for legislation and steps to end their miseries. But […]

By Qamar Zaman – We are living in difficult times and extraordinary circumstances demand extraordinarily measures. It may be a noble intent but critics are lambasting the government for allegedly infringing the rights of citizen through the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance (PPO) 2013, and also the lawmakers for choosing the timesaver passage (Ordinance instead of […]

By Ahmed Bilal Mehboob –  Not a bad year for the parliament but it could have been better The two houses of the parliament, the Senate and the National Assembly, continued their slow-paced journey during 2012 towards evolution as sovereign and assertive institutions of the state. Despite the landmark 18th constitutional amendment, under which powers […]

By Qamar Zaman - It takes a lot to become a parliamentarian in Pakistan but once there, the world is at his/her feet — or so it is deemed. The parliamentarian can drag people for breach of privilege even over a refusal to take a phone

By Qamar Zaman - Pakistan won its first Oscar this year — an honour that portrayed its ugly face in gruesome, if realistic way. The evil of domestic violence is known but our male chauvinist society has disregarded it to such an

Pique Report - Whether you call it laxness on part of the parliamentarians or lack of accountability in Pakistan’s parliamentary or political system but it is a fact that around a dozen special parliamentary committees have either become dysfunctional or failed to accomplish the task

By Nafisa Shah - Women leaders of Pakistan have, in no small measure, shaped the political agenda of the country, especially in strengthening political systems and democracy. Madar-e-Millat Fatima Jinnah, Shaheed Mohtarama