ISLAMABAD, Jan 10 (APP): The 13th plenary session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) has gotten underway in the Türkiye city of Antalya.
A Parliamentary delegation of Pakistan is participating in the prestigious event, comprising members from both National Assembly and Senate, said a message received here on Tuesday.
On the first day of the plenary session, the APA, in a historic move, granted Observer Status to the International Parliamentarians Congress (IPC), an international parliamentary organisation constituted through a resolution adopted by the Senate of Pakistan. The APA also extended an invitation to the IPC for participation in the ongoing plenary.
Senator Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, Chairman Senate of Pakistan, is the President of IPC, which is headquartered in Islamabad and comprises individual parliamentarians from around the world to work in unison for the promotion of democracy, peace, and development in the world.
Earlier, in a related move, Senator Nuzhat Sadiq, who is leading the Pakistan delegation, earned another laurel for the country when she was appointed unopposed as the Rapporteur for the 13th APA plenary.
On the sidelines, the Pakistan delegation undertook extensive parliamentary diplomacy, holding meetings with delegations of Qatar, UAE, Iran, Bahrain and Türkiye.
During the meetings, matters pertaining to promoting bilateral, economic, trade, investment, cultural and inter-parliamentary ties came under discussion.
The plenary session, held under the theme “Promoting multilateralism in the changing global dynamics”, brings together representatives of parliamentary delegations from 27 APA member countries.
APA Secretary-General Mohammad Reza Majidi, Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, APA Acting Chairman Mustafa Sentop, as well as the speakers of the parliaments representing the member countries, delivered opening remarks.
In his opening remarks, Mustafa Sentop also commended Chairman Senate, Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani for having officially registered the nomination in favour of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the “Nobel Peace Prize” for his efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis in a letter addressed to Norwegian Nobel Committee.
It is worth mentioning here that APA consists of 42 Member Parliaments and provides a forum to parliamentarians for exchanging views, ideas and experiences to develop common strategies for the promotion of peace development and cooperation in Asia and the world. Pakistan has been at the forefront to make APA a vibrant parliamentary forum of the region and remained as APA President during 2013-15.
