Inter-provincial co-operation of parliamentarians are crucial for an effective state and improvement of governance in Pakistan, concluded Parvez Khattak, Chief Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at the end of the forth multi-party summit organized by DRI in collaboration with Provincial Assembly of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP). He also announced budgetary support for continuing the visits whenever the KP Assembly would demand.
Since significant powers were devolved to Pakistan’s four provinces, co-ordination between them has become more urgent to ensure effective governance and sharing of good practices with regards to legislation and policy making. Multi-party summits address this need with a thematic focus on the rights of women, minorities and youth, who are often excluded from the political processes. Parliamentarians from the four provinces agree that there should be more reserved seats for women and minorities in elected bodies and to provide them space in decision making of the executive branch of power.
During the summit, the Parliamentarians met the Deputy Speaker KP Assembly, the Acting Governor of KP and the Chief Minister of the province. Fourteen Members of Provincial Assemblies (MPAs) from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League –Nawaz (PMLN), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), National Party (NP), Pakhtunkhwa Awami Milli Party (PkMAP), and Pakistan Muslim League – Functional (PMLF) from Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan participated in the summit.
The summit was the last out of four organized by DRI on the 24-25 February 2016 in the context of the DFID funded programme “Strengthening Parliament’s Role in the Promotion of Human Rights in Pakistan: Democratic Stability Through Responsive Elected Institution” implemented by DRI since May 2015.