On Monday, 24^th July, 2023 National Institute of Management, Lahore arranged a lecture discussion with Mr. Shahid Hamid, a senior advocate of Supreme Court of Pakistan, on “Interface with Parliament” for the participants of 37^th MCMC. The honorable guest speaker emphasized that parliament is the center of our democracy. As civil servants, participants should learn how to interact and benefit from the working of the parliament. The guest speaker also font highlighted that national interest must be given precedence over petty personal interests. In Pakistan, unfortunately, there have been instances ware personal interest was given importance over national interest and politicians did not humorize the two. He also highlighted that performance of Parliament should be measured in terms of its impact on common man.

The He cited the example of Parliament in the UK and how it has been held to account by the common citizen. In context of Pakistan, the different committees can recommend certain modifications and raise certain questions about the execution of different projects of a ministry but its recommendations are not binding on the ministry since the latter can consider the committee’s recommendations and after considering can send the recommendations back to the committee with its own observations. It was also mentioned by the speaker that Parliament in Pakistan has as many committees as there are ministries in the federal government. The parliamentarians in Pakistan are not formally trained regarding the functioning of the different sections and divisions within the parliament and they acquire the knowledge through their experience which consumes a lot of time.