On September 02, 2025, Mr. Farhan Aziz Khawaja, Director General, Civil Services Academy (CSA), Lahore, conducted a workshop on “Federal and Provincial Rules of Business and Interdepartmental Coordination Mechanisms: Challenges and Solutions” for the participants of 44^th Mid-Career Management Course at National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) Lahore.

Mr. Khawaja started the workshop by presenting a practitioner’s perspective on governance, emphasizing that public policy is essentially the function of conducting government affairs across local, provincial, and national levels. He also elaborated the international governance context, highlighting geo-strategic challenges in a unipolar world, the weakening role of the UN system, and the increasing influence of globalization, capitalism, interdependence of economies, WTO regulations, and climate change. These factors, he pointed out, shape the environment in which Pakistan’s governance and policymaking must operate. The honorable guest speaker then talked at length about Article 99 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which deals with the Conduct of Business of Federal Government. After discussing this article, Mr. Khawaja explained the Rules of Business, 1973, which he described as a comprehensive document dealing with the Allocation of Business, Organization of Divisions, Transaction of Business, Individual and Collective Responsibility, and Inter-Division Procedure. He also explained the concept and role of cabinet committees

Mr. Khawaja’s talk was followed by a lively Q&A session. After the Q&A session, the class was divided into seven groups, each comprising six members, to work as Cabinet Committee on a given topic. After working for 30 minutes, the class reassembled and all committees presented their work highlighting coordination mechanisms among various federal and provincial entities and related issues. The guest speaker appreciated the work done by the committees.