Movenpick, Karachi – Anthro Insights arranged 3rd ‘Post Legislative Scrutiny Workshop’ (PLS) for National Assembly members on 14th-16th of January under the Legislative Effectiveness Program. PLS workshop was primarily conducted in two days with the presence of almost 20+ members from federal wing with an aim to strengthen the knowledge of all the participants about the process and steps of post-legislative scrutiny of passed legislations, delegated legislation, building consensus across-party lines and few other sessions subjected to similar objective.
Honourable Secretary Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Ms. Munaza Hassan commenced the session with her welcoming remarks. She highlighted the need of increased participation of women parliamentarians in House business Thereafter, PLS expert Mr. Ali Mujtaba Zaidi briefed the participants about background information of Legislative Effectiveness Program and its alignment with the working domain of legislators. He further projected the light on key steps of PLS and entertained the questions of participants.
Second session was delivered by Civic Engagement Expert Mr. Zafarullah Khan on ‘Legal Socialization’ who mentioned the secretariat ‘s ability to facilitate the legislation process with question/answer session. He added that it is the most ignored niche of the law-making process yet a dominant step of PLS. It is followed by the last session of day-1 on ‘Building Consensus Across Party Lines’ conducted by Additional Secretary Special Initiatives National Assembly of Pakistan Mr. Shamoon Hashmi. He highlighted the power which legislators possess with respect to law-making and how effectively they can make a best use this power. It is therefore important to build consensus to mutually agree to something rather than being forced to agree to it.
On the second day of the workshop, two sessions were conducted by the experts. First session specific to ‘Reviewing Delegated Legislation’ was hosted by the Delegated Legislative Expert Mr. Sheikh Sarfraz Ahmed, who elaborated the need for the revision of Parent legislations since laws has no space for vacuum. It was followed by various questions from the attendees regarding the scope of delegated and principal legislations. Last session was delivered by Mr. Muhammad Mushtaq on ‘Parliamentary Systems and Legislative Scrutiny.’ It revolved around the power inferred upon standing committees directing the Ministries to draft rules and policies pertaining to certain laws. A productive Q/A session was held where the trainer addressed all the queries of respected members.
In closing remarks Secretary WPC acknowledged that worthy key-learnings from the workshop and paid thanks to all guest experts, honourable members, and Anthro Insights for arranging such effective workshops for the capacity building of women-parliamentarians
