Democracy is an end as well as a means to an end: Minister

Islamabad, February 17, 2014 (PPI-OT): Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, Ch Muhammad Barjees Tahir, has said that democracy is an end as well as a mean to an end. Beauty lies in evolving process that follows to become a tradition, which promises to bring positive change in the lives of people.

One of the key tools of parliamentary democracy is “committees”, which provides legislators the opportunity to perform their lawmaking and oversight role to improve the lives of people they represent. Representatives of the people must not shake the trust of the people who elect them to assemblies.

He said this while addressing to a two day workshop for heads of standing committees under the name “function and effectiveness of parliamentary committees for Chairpersons of standing committees” organized by Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS) today.

Various members and heads of parliamentary committees from Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative assembly participated. Khan Ahmad Goraya, Executive Director PIPS, and Wazir Beg, Speaker Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly also address the workshop.

While addressing the workshop, Federal Minister Said that standing committees not only help the parliament in its legislation function but also bring monitoring, supervision and accountability in parliamentary democracy. His Office will leave no stone unturned in order to provide support to Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly and the Government.

He lauded the role of Executive Director PIPS for turning this structure from a building to an institution. It was his desire to conduct training sessions for the chairpersons of the standing committees in order to build capacity of the members of the newly formed assembly. He reiterated that his office would carry on taking such measure in the future in order to improve the working capacity of legislators.

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