PARLIAMENT:
“The Parliament is the supreme decision-making and legislative body in any democracy.” (Ziauddin Sardar)
“A parliament is that to be commonwealth which the soul is to the body.” (John Pym)
“Parliament is more than procedure – it is the custodian of the nation’s freedom”. (John Diefenbaker)
The word ‘Parliament’ is derived from old French word ‘Parlement’ meaning ‘discussion’, ‘discourse’ or ‘to talk’. The meaning changed and evolved over time, thus now means discussion, negotiations or consultations through numerous types of ex-cogitative or  judicial groups.
Parliament is the legislative (law-making) body of the government. In simple words, it is an assembly of spokespersons of a government empire or people, often the supreme legislative sovereignty. It is made of that people we have elected.
The Parliament of Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( in Urdu: مجلس الشورى ) is the superior legislative body of the country. According to 1973 constitutional framework, parliamentary system was introduced in the country. As stated by Article 50 of constitution 1973, in Pakistan it shall consist of President and two classes i.e., National Assembly and Senate. With exclusion of money bills, both houses work in conjunction to carry out the fundamental task of it i.e., law-constituting.
ROLE:
Under the constitution, the parliament has some following functions:
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- The parliament represents the electorate and supervises the government via hearings and inquiries.
- The most important function of it is legislation (law-making). The bill relating to the Federal Legislative List, can be issued in either National Assembly or Senate. If the one House approved the bill through majority votes, it shall be transferred to the other one. It the other House passed the bill without any revision and alternation, it shall be present to President of the country for rubber-stamp.
- The President who is at the crest, is elected by members of both houses (National Assembly and Senate) of Parliament.
- The parliament may also legislate for two or more provinces by agreement in the instance of crisis. But the bills passed by it during the time of emergency, ought to come to a halt to be in force after the expiration of six months from the date predicament is lifted. However, the steps shall remain maintainable.
- In case of emergency, it holds the power to extend the incumbency of the National Assembly. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
