LAHORE: As many as 150 delegates from 25 countries, minus India, are attending the three-day 7th Plenary Session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) which is starting here from today and is being considered the biggest ever event in the city after the Islamic Summit Conference held 40 years ago.
The APA was founded by Pakistan in Islamabad in November 2004. Senate Chairman Syed Nayyar Husain Bukhari is its president. Its membership is open to national parliaments of Asia.
Forty-one parliaments are APA’s regular members, 17 hold observer status and there are nine observers. The slogan for the moot is “Quest for Asian Parliament in Asian Century (21st Century).”
Briefing the media on the aims and objectives of the historic event here yesterday, APA Organising Committee Chairman Senator Mushahid Husain said India had not confirmed its participation as yet, hoping a positive response in view of the handshake between the Pakistani and Indian prime ministers in Kathmandu the other day.
He said delegates from China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cyprus, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan and Turkey were attending the moot. The inaugural session would be held on December 2 during which the delegates would discuss core issues of the region, as well the world, in three different plenary sessions.
On the third day the APA committees on political, social and cultural affairs, and economic and sustainable development would meet. Ad hoc committee on financial and staff regulations and the drafting committee of the plenary would meet to discuss theirs and secretariat reports, and the Lahore Declaration.
Internews
