*ISLAMABAD:* The speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq has said that tohighlight positive image of Pakistan in the World, 88 parliamentaryfriendship groups had been formulated in the National Assembly with sisterparliaments around the world.

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq Wednesday said that during thelast five years, the National Assembly had passed highest number of lawsand accomplished landmark achievements.

Addressing a reception hosted in his honour here, the speaker said 136 lawswere passed and out of them 49 laws were very significant such asCompulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Act, Election Act, Right to Access toInformation Act, The Public Interest Disclosure Act, The Witness Protectionand Security and Benefit Act and Hindu Marriage Act.

The speaker said the current assembly also passed four constitutional acts,two of them were regarding counter-terrorism efforts and two for improvingthe electoral system. He said for the first time in the history of NationalAssembly, seven bills were passed in the joint sitting, out of which fourwere private member bills. He also highlighted that 16 private member billsbecame laws during the tenure of the incumbent assembly.

The speaker said all the issues of national importance came underdiscussion in the House and opposition was provided full opportunity topresent its point of view on these issues. He said the current NationalAssembly had also distinction to pass six budget during its tenure. He saidparliamentary committee on national security and parliamentary committee onChina-Pakistan Economic Corridor had been constituted. He said performanceof the standing committees remained tremendous. He said out of 34 standingcommittees, 10 were headed by the opposition.

To enhance the working and performance of the National Assembly, variousinitiatives including formation of strategic plan for establishment oflegislative council, introduction of parliamentary studies programme in topuniversities of the country, conducting in-house on-job training ofsecretariat staff had been taken during the tenure of the present assembly,he said. He said the parliament was the first of its kind in the world tohave its fully functional sustainable development goals secretariat. Hesaid it was also a matter of honour that the parliament was first in theworld to go green by shifting completely on the solar energy. He said thefirst-ever energy audit of the Parliament House was conducted during thistenure which enabled the government to explore alternative sources ofenergy.

The speaker said he raised the issue of Kashmir on every internationalforum and succeeded to get three unanimous resolutions on Kashmir passedfrom the parliamentary union of Islamic countries. He said both houses ofthe parliament had passed more than half a dozen resolutions to stronglydenounce the reprehensible acts of unprecedented state terrorism andviolation of human rights by Indian forces in the occupied valley.