LAHORE: Speakers at a workshop on 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) have stressed the need for empowering parliamentary committees for effective provincial oversight of the action plan. The workshop, held for the members of the Punjab Assembly’s Standing Committee on Home Affairs, familiarised the parliamentarians with the salient features of NAP and the stakeholders involved and shared the status of its implementation in Punjab. Workshop was organised by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) at local hotel on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, Standing Committee on Home Affairs Chairman and PML-N MPA Makhdoom Syed Masood Alam stated that while a number laws relating to counter-terrorism measures had been passed through the efforts of the committee, the committee did not have the authority to call its own meetings and hold the government departments to account, which severely limited its ability to undertake oversight on NAP. Parliamentary Secretary (Home) and PML-N MPA Rana Muhammad Afzal said that Pakistan had paid a heavy price in the war on terror, but its achievements had not been recognised. He emphasised the role of ordinary citizens in winning the war on terror, and reaffirmed the resolve of the Home Affairs Committee in doing everything in its authority to ensure implementation of NAP in the province. MPA Chaudhry Laal Hussain highlighted that parliamentarians were unable to perform their legislative and oversight duties as well because they were expected to deal with day-to-day issues and conflicts in their constituencies. He stated that empowering local bodies would be very beneficial in overcoming this hurdle. Punjab Assembly Senior Secretary Rai Mumtaz Hussain Babar stated that lack of authority for the standing committees to hold meetings on their own was a major hurdle. Nonetheless, many positive actions had been taken by special committees made by the Punjab Assembly for the purpose of oversight, he added. He also assured the gathering that he would take the suggestion made at the workshop to the assembly and discuss the same with the minister concerned as well as the Punjab Assembly speaker so that periodic review of progress on NAP could be made possible. Former federal secretary for interior Tasneem Noorani also highlighted that while progress had been made in Punjab regarding NAP, there was a great need for national-level leadership to take ownership of implementation of such an important document. National focal body NACTA had not become fully operational, which created hurdles in better coordination between provinces and the federal government on NAP, he added. Published in Daily Times, September 20th 2017.