September 24; About 400 Parliamentarians, Ministers, Parliamentary Staff and Experts from 32 member countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the European Union concluded their deliberations on the changing role of Parliaments in the Budget Process. The international symposium was organized by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in cooperation with the Parliamentary Union of the member states of the OIC (PUIC) and the European Union (EU) with Turkey truly acting as the bridge between the East and the West. The Symposium was opened on September 23 by the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mr. Mehmet Ali Sahin.

A comparative study of the Parliamentary Budget Processes in the countries whose cases were presented at the Symposium indicated that almost all countries give a substantial role to the parliamentary committees in their budget process unlike Pakistan where the parliamentary committees in the National Assembly have no formal role in the budget process. It also transpired that the period of parliamentary budget process in most of the countries is much longer than in Pakistan. Turkey has a parliamentary budget process of 75 days out of which the Plan and Budget Committee of the Turkish Parliament discusses the budget for 55 days while the full Grand National Assembly debates the budget for 20 days before passing it. A Budget Directorate works within the Turkish Parliament to support the Plan and Budget Committee in the analysis and discussion on the Budget.

In comparison, Pakistan�s National Assembly debated the budget for 11 days on the average during the last 10 budget sessions. Pakistani National Assembly has no Budget Office to assist the Parliamentarians in the budget debate.

Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, the former Finance Minister of Pakistan moderated the session on Budgetary Reforms in which delegates from Turkey, Portugal, Bahrain, Albania, Morocco and Kuwait shared their country studies.

Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director PILDAT presented the paper on Parliament-Civil Society Interaction on the Budget Process during another session moderated by the Moroccan delegate.

The international symposium was held in Afyunkarahisar, a resort city near Ankara, Turkey.

PILDAT has been working in the area of strengthening Parliament�s role in the Budget Process since 45%2 in Pakistan. Key reform strategies in this regard have been developed by PILDAT. Various research and briefing papers, backgrounders and reports of PILDAT in this area can be accessed at http://www.pildat.org/publications.asp (Please select �Budget �in the subject category and �All� in the Type category to view and download related publications).