National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has proposed a ‘Charter of Parliament’ to be signed between government and opposition, aimed at fostering better cooperation despite ongoing political tensions. During the assembly session, he addressed parliamentarians, suggesting that regardless of whether party leaders agree, members of Parliament could still work towards signing a cross-party charter.
Parliament enjoys absolute sovereignty and is considered supreme over all other institutions including executive and judicial organs of the state. However, it is because of extreme political polarisation that its members are unable to protect its honour and discharge their responsibilities as per true spirit of the Constitution. Sometimes MPs are manhandled in the parliament lodges and sometimes they are arrested from the precincts of Parliament without permission of the Speaker National Assembly or the Chairman Senate as witnessed a few days back. Similarly, there are numerous instances when either the judiciary or the executive encroached upon powers of Parliament and the institution could not safeguard its honour and prestige. There is a general perception and rightly so that politicians, political parties and elected representatives themselves are to be blamed for this sorry state of affairs as they remain in perpetual infighting. It has also been observed that some chief executives rarely attended sessions of the National Assembly and Senate and most of policy decisions were taken without input from Parliament. Under these circumstances, the proposal mooted by the Speaker for a ‘Charter of Parliament’ deserves serious consideration by the political leadership and parliamentary parties as it has the potential to strengthen the role, powers and image of the institution.
