Lahore: October 07, 2010 Members of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab met, with Honourable Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Speaker of Provincial Assembly of the Punjab in chair, to deliberate on the development of a Legislative Curriculum for the members of the Punjab Assembly.

Honourable Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan appreciated PILDAT�s effort to consult MPAs on the subject of Curriculum Development and said a comprehensive curriculum would greatly benefit the seasoned as well as the new MPAs in the discharge of their responsibilities. He went on to say that experts of the relevant fields may be invited to deliver lectures and impart training to the members. He said that priority should be given to local resource persons for conducting legislative strengthening workshops.

Welcoming the participants of the consultative session, Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director PILDAT, said that in today�s changing world it is of vital importance to stay updated with modern research. Talking about the different ways of gaining knowledge, he was of the opinion that there should be focused topics for the parliamentarians that may help them improve their legislative as well as personal skills. He drew the attention of the participants to the draft Curriculum list which was circulated for discussion.

Col (Retd) Shabbir Awan, MPA, in his remarks suggested that the most important issue was to resolve the governance issues. Talking about the draft curriculum he said that the topic of good governance should be added to the curriculum.

Ayesha Javed, MPA, termed all curriculum items relevant. She was of the opinion that all the members of the provincial assembly should be involved at some point in time and their input may also be sought on the curriculum. She stressed that more interactive workshops should be conducted instead of seminars.

Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, MPA, suggested that the items suggested in the draft curriculum are all very important. Analysing the assembly secretariat�s role, Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan said that the assembly secretariat�s role is very weak in providing any research material to the members. He suggested that the secretariat must publish a periodic news-letter updating the members about the past events of the Provincial Assembly and also the future programmes. He went on to say that the invites to the training sessions should not be limited to the members only but it should also include the ticket holders who contest the elections as they are the future members.

Rai Safdar Abbas Bhatti, MPA, while taking part in the discussion termed the curriculum list as comprehensive. He suggested that a topic covering How to conduct Political research should also be included. All courses should be available on line at PILDAT or Punjab Assembly website�s he further added. He was also of the opinion that the students should be engaged with the members to help them research. To improve the attendance of the members he suggested a reward mechanism may be introduced to improve the attendance of the members.

Mr. Mehr Ishtiaq opined that we should work to make the systems strong and also suggested that the Topic relating to Fund Raising is not relevant to Pakistani politics as people here like to invest and reap gains. He suggested that the Former Bureaucrats and senior politicians could be good resource persons.

Ms. Zeb Jaffer, MPA, while speaking on the occasion suggested that the attendance is low in the house because the members do not have enough research material with them to study and contribute positively. She further said that PILDAT should provide a research section to support the MPA�s during the session. She termed all the contents of the Curriculum as relevant.

Mr. Shahzad Saeed Cheema, MPA suggested that the choice of the resource person can also help improve the attendance of the members. He said that course contents should be a mix of Academic and Political topics.

Chaudhry Javed Ahmad, Advocate, MPA laid stress that Importance be given to governance issues and some topic to cover this should be included in the Curriculum.

Mr. Mohsin Khan Leghari, while speaking at the consultative session suggested that 371 members of the house will never attend these training sessions so there is a need to identify topics for select groups of the parliamentarians of their interest and to have focused discussions.

Following members of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab attended the consultative session:

Col. (Retd). Shabbir Awan, (PP-2, PPPP), Mr. Sher Ali Khan (PP-17, PML), Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan (PP-66, PML-N), Mr. Mehr Ishtiaq Ahmad (PP-150, PML-N), Mr. Ijaz Ahmad Khan (PP-151, PML-N), Mr. Shahjahan Bhatti (PP-172, PPPP), Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan (PP-184, PML-N), Mr. Shahzad Saeed Cheema, (PP-224, PPPP), Chaudhry Javed Ahmed, Advocate, (PP-228, PML-N), Mr. Muhammad Mohsin Leghari (PP-245, PML), Mr. Rai Safdar Abbas Bhatti (PP-263, PPPP), Ms. Zeb Jaffar (W-298, PML-N), Rana Munawwar Hussain (PP-36, PPPP).