Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS) organized a two-days National Conference on Harmonization of Rules of Procedure on March 30-31, 2016. The Conference was attended by 20 participants including Honorable Members of Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure; Committee Secretaries from National Assembly, Senate and all Provincial and Legislative Assemblies; and Officials working on Rules of Procedure. Beginning with the recitation of Holy Quran, the Conference opened up with remarks on behalf of Acting Executive Director PIPS, Mr Muhammad Rashid Mafzool Zaka by Director Training Ms. Samer Awais. On Day one, Special Secretary National Assembly, Mr. Qamar Sohail Lodhi, illuminated the participants with the Best Practices of Rules of Procedure in the National Assembly of Pakistan. In order to learn from the experiences of some other countries a session was conducted by Mr. Kashif Mahmood Tariq, Deputy Director Legislation PIPS, on “A Comparative Study of Rules of Procedure – Pakistan, India, United Kingdom and Germany.”

In morning session of the day two on March 31, 2016, Honorable Member of National Assembly, Mr. S. A. Iqbal Qadri, deliberated on the best practices of Rules of Procedure in the National Assembly of Pakistan followed by Ms. Rabea Anwar, Joint Secretary Senate, who highlighted the best practices of Senate of Pakistan. Mr. Atta Ullah Khan, Special Secretary/Director IT Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Abdul Karim Ghorezai, Private Secretary Provincial Assembly of Baluchistan, reflected the Practices and Challenges regarding Rules of Procedure of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, respectively. Mr. Khalid Mahmood, Deputy Secretary Legislation Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, Chaudhry Basharat Hussain, Secretary Provincial Assembly of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, and Mr. Abdullah Khan, Secretary Provincial Assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan, shared the Best Practices of Rules of Procedure in their respective Houses. Mr. Muhammad Aslam Waseem, Deputy Solicitor Ministry of Law, GoP, covered the topic from the perspective of Sindh Assembly. Q & A session offered the participants the opportunity to openly debate the issue enabling them to learn from each other’s experience. Vote of thanks was presented by Director Training Ms Samer Awais for all participants as well as the support rendered by PIPS longstanding partner, Konrad Adeanauer Stiftung (KAS).