ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Tuesday supported the idea of having elections across the country on the same day and said that the parliament was ready to play its role in this regard.

“Parliament is the only place where struggle for democracy would succeed,” said Mr Ashraf while talking to media representatives on the sidelines of an event titled ‘Policy Dialogue on Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Security: Challenges and Way Forward for Pakistan’ organised by Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (Pips) in collaboration with Syngenta, an agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling farmers to make better use of available resources.

The speaker said consensus and dialogue was the only option for all political parties to lead the country out of socio-economic challenges, adding that the parliament was ready to initiate a process for developing consensus among political players and stakeholders.

The speaker was of the view that holding elections is the shared responsibility of three stakeholders – the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the incumbent government and all political parties - and these stakeholders should develop consensus in this regard.

Earlier, speaking at the event, the speaker said Pakistan contributed the least towards global warming but it was the most adversely affected by it.

He said climate change, food security and sustainable agriculture were strongly inter-linked. “Pakistan was facing the severe impact of climate change like drought, forest fires and recent devastating floods,” the speaker said.

Furthermore, he praised the role and support of the academia for upgrading policy options. Mr Ashraf said Pakistan was a blessed state with all human resources and natural blessings and the Pakistani diaspora was playing a pivotal role for finding new ways of transforming agriculture as per climate change.

“The parliament performs a critical role in democratic society as the institution that represents and aggregates citizen interests in the drafting and scrutiny of legislation and oversight of the executive branch.

“Parliamentarians are uniquely placed to ensure the effective ratification of international climate change treaties and implementation of the Paris Agreement,” he added.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023