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Reports coming in from inside say that the historic Wangduephodrang Dzong is being razzed by fire since this afternoon.
According to Kuensel, the battle to bring the inferno into control was underway at the time of filing this report.
The King and his father are learnt to have reached the venue already.
The Dzong is located some 20 km away from Punaka and was founded in 1638 AD by Shabdrung.
The antic structure was renovated twice after a fire in 1837 and an earthquake in 1897.
Both the participating teams from Dallas and Fort Worth of Texas have entered the final of the ongoing Inter-State Soccer Tournament in California, Saturday.
Defeating the Idaho team with a marvelous victory of 5/2 during the semifinal, Texas Dallas team sealed their place for the final battle, which will be played against the Texas Forth Worth team on Sunday at 13:15 hours.
The latter entered the final after beating the Oregon team against 5/1 in today’s match.
Quarterfinals and semifinals
The second day of the Inter-State Soccer Tournament ended successfully here in Oakland California.
In the first half of the day, all the first rounds of the games were played between the participating teams.
Team Idaho won the first game scoring two goals against Tucson, and Arizona in a tiebreaker penalty shoot scoring a total of six goals.
In the second match, Oregon team secured its victory against the host team California White with six goals in the tiebreaker penalty shootout. Oregon was privileged to enter the semifinal as a bystander team bypassing the quarterfinals, where over 300 Californian Bhutanese spectators were present.
Meanwhile, Texas Dallas team gained a victory with single goal against Colorado team. Similarly, Texas Fort Worth won Georgia by two goals while Idaho team defeated Tennessee in a tiebreaker penalty shoots.
The official team led by Jitu Basnet included experienced Bhutanese soccer player and trainer Madan Yonjan and one volunteer Travis Nichols judged all the games. Nichols is a Regional Director of Ethne Global Services, which is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, and a soccer lover.
According to Jeevan Subba, the Chairman of the Bhutanese Community of California, Yonjan had even trained Bhaichung Bhutia, the former Indian soccer team captain.
Organizers said that all the matches were played in a friendly manner with no injuries and conflicts.
Local American volunteers, volunteers from Bhutanese Community of California and Bhutanese California Youth Club supported the players and the teams with foods, lodging, transportation and other logistics helps.
A high level Microsoft delegation will come to Bhutan in September this year to discuss a range of activities with the Royal Government of Bhutan, Ministry of Information and Communications in particular, for a comprehensive cooperation.
According to the Cabinet Secretariat, this is one of the outcomes of the meeting Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley and MoIC Secretary Kinley Dorji had with Microsoft Managing Director Frank McCosker in Rio De Janeiro this week on the sidelines of the Rio+20 conference.
“Some of the activities would include Microsoft software for research, governance, mobile applications and especially the cutting edge technology for last mile connectivity to reach the unreached,” said the Secretariat in its statement.
They also discussed the possibility of Microsoft setting up a high end BPO and software development in Bhutan, it further said.
The Prime Minister is learnt to have informed the General Manager that Bhutan was preparing itself as an ICT investment hub to achieve Bhutan’s goal of an ICT enabled knowledge based society.
While, Dorji said that Microsoft could potentially be a substantial partner in Bhutan’s ICT industry, it added.
India confronts a new strategic situation in its neighborhood as its staunchest ally Bhutan prepares to establish full diplomatic ties with China. Until now, Bhutan had been the only South Asian country where China did not have a presence. That is about to change.
After a surprise meeting between Bhutanese PM, Jigme Y Thinley and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, the two countries reportedly discussed ways to resolve their border dispute. While Bhutan and China have had a long dialogue on the border dispute, India would be interested in the contours of any resolution as it would have huge implications for its strategic calculations in the region.
Chinese media quoted Wen as saying, “China is willing… to establish formal relations with Bhutan, resolve the border issue between the two nations at an early date, strengthen exchanges in all areas and advance Sino-Bhutanese relations to a new stage.” Wen told Thinley that China respects Bhutan’s choice for its developmental path according to its own national conditions. Thinley reiterated Bhutan’s stand on a One-China policy.
However, there was no corresponding confirmation from Bhutan. Sources said Thimphu had clarified to New Delhi that they had not given any commitment to Beijing yet. But the Rio meeting was not accidental since a special Chinese envoy had been sent to Thimphu recently for talks with the Bhutanese government. But as Indian officials said, it’s not as if Bhutan and China have no ties — the Chinese ambassador, for instance, was invited for both the coronation of the young king as well as the royal wedding last year.
India has huge economic and security stakes in Bhutan, and is its closest neighbour. But India’s strategic policymakers have anticipated Bhutan’s shift in stance. Long used to being its window to the world, New Delhi now has to get accustomed to the fact that a new Bhutan is on the rise and will make choices apart from India. After the king devolved power to a democratic system, the elected government has taken several steps to diversify from Bhutan’s almost complete dependence on India. India will have to take a more mature approach to Bhutan wanting to spread its wings, if it doesn’t want to antagonize its closest neighbour.
Bhutan is vital to India’s security calculus not only vis-a-vis China, but also in tackling some of the north-east insurgent groups like its crackdown on the ULFA groups in 2004. Bhutan’s position in the Chumbi Valley, the tri-junction with India and China, makes its border resolution decisions key from a security point of view for India.
Sources said that some time ago the Chinese had offered some of the northern grazing grounds to the then king to settle a border dispute — China and Bhutan share a 500-km border. But Bhutan was unwilling to give the Chinese what they wanted — some of the key ridges in the tri-junction area. India controls all the ridges in that area giving it an edge, but possible Bhutanese concessions to China could affect that situation.
Japan has announced it will open its diplomatic mission in Bhutan by 2014, a commitment given to the young royal couple, when they visited Japan in November. Bhutan’s sovereign investment institution is wooing FDI in data centre related businesses, renewable energy, organic farming as well as alternative building materials to reduce dependence on timber for construction. Bhutan is also pitching itself as the least corrupt country in South Asia, which is a big draw for foreign investors. China is also an attractive source of investment for the Himalayan nation, and most Indian officials are unhappily aware that Beijing can secure a quick advantage over India with its obvious strengths.
Courtesy : Time of India
The much awaited inter-state soccer tournament kicked off today at Oakland Tag High School soccer field in Oakland California.
Four matches were played between the participating states on Friday, organizers informed.
Bhutanese teams from Colorado, Dallas of Texas , Georgia and Fort Worth of Texas secured their victory against California A, Utah, Phoenix and Washington teams respectively.
Milan Rai of Colorado scored the first goal of the tournament in 23 mins followed by 3 goals against the host team California A. While, California A walked out of tournament with a single goal.
The Georgian team scored 5 goals in a match played against the Phoenix team, which failed to score any goal.
Likewise, Dallas Texas team was declared winner of the third game with a total of 4 scores as Utha was knocked out of the tournament with no scores.
The fourth battle of Fort Wort, Texas against Washington ended in tie breaker shoot out paving way for Fort Wort to the quarter final.
The game was very spectacular and competitive in which both the teams scored 2 goals each within the stipulated time of 70 mins. Ill-fated Washington team got knocked out of the tournament with a loss of one goal after a scoring a total of 7 goals against the Texas team.
The organizers further informed that a total of various 13 teams have registered in the tournament. All the remaining matches have been scheduled for Saturday. The final match will be held on Sunday.
The Bhutanese Community of California (BCC) and the California Bhutanese Youths Club have jointly organized the tournament with a slogan ‘soccer for growth’.
While, the host community and the organizers provided arrangements with transportation, food and lodging to the needy teams. Volunteers from the “Soccer Beyond Borders” have been providing the organizers with technical and other necessary logistic.
Meanwhile, Sandeep Subba of California A team sustained a minor injury during the Friday’s tournament, where certified Bhutanese umpire Jit Basnet judged all the matches that attracted some 300 soccer fans from within the community.
What struck me most about Bhutan’s experiments with accelerated democracy and plural media is the romanticised idealism behind both. There is so much hope inspired by so much innocence.
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is singularly Bhutan’s most successful international export and its defining global brand. It is the enveloping philosophy for balanced development of society and the environment, temporal goals and religion, tradition and modernity, group responsibility and individual freedoms. Almost all policy initiatives are framed by GNH contribution and impact.
Social progress owes much to leaders who dare to dream of a better world for their people. When they are able to create the ground conditions to translate dreams to reality, magic happens. That is where the noble GNH aspirations crash into reality. The execution gap is the challenge for Bhutan in all aspects of its governance. In media policy that gap is particularly wide.
Media vital for democracy. Media is also a business
Plural media can add multiple perspectives to issues in the public domain. It can inform public debate. It can allow wide participation of citizens in evolving policy. Media is therefore considered a social good in progressive societies.
However, media is also a business which has to generate a surplus of trading profit over operating costs. Unless media is profitable it cannot survive. A core ingredient for media health is the amount of advertising revenue available.
In Bhutan 80% of annual advertising derives from government notices for tenders, announcements and job vacancies. There is no private sector to speak of apart from an oligarchy of privileged elites with national franchises. Sonam Kinga who serves as the deputy chairman of the National Council makes that point very well in his Blog (www.sonamkinga.bt).
There is a serious disconnect between the liberal issue of publishing licenses and the advertising available to support the proliferation of newspapers.
In 2006 Kuensel (1965), Bhutan Times and Bhutan Observer were the newspapers published. Government sharing of advertising seemed sufficient for their survival. They had a mission and reason to exist.
The total number of press titles now stands at twelve! Unless they are mission-led, bringing distinct value and differentiation of content, twelve newspapers for Thimpu is overkill. Most First World economies can only support one or two newspapers in each city. Their capitals may be able to support three or four.
How can twelve newspapers survive in Thimpu, a city of only 100,000 people?
An attempt by the administration to distribute advertising on independently measured criteria of audience reach was defeated by the players appealing to the Prime Minister to void it. A press industry willing to fuzz its way to joining the dole queue raises a lot of questions about motives, integrity and value for democracy.
Is this the kind of press the government wants to encourage? Why? How can such a press demand transparency and accountability of anyone else?
The standard excuse for policy errors is “we are a young democracy”. That does not justify the reluctance to rectify an unsustainable situation which is damaging responsible press.
Why is leadership absent in such a critical area of the democratic framework? The worst effect of this muddle is that serious press is penalised and disabled for new supplicants joining the queue for government advertising and political advertising for the 2013 elections.
No government wants to upset the fourth estate before an election. Disabling responsible press before an election can be counter-productive.
Investigative journalism & Right to Information (RTI) Bill
The dependence on government for commercial survival is not a healthy situation for investigative journalism.
Departments which have the discretion to channel advertising placements will naturally tend to favour ‘friendly’ media. Newspapers will have to trade off investigative journalism for advertising revenues. That can only create a poodle press, not a watchdog for democracy.
It is not the business of independent media to be publicists or propagandists for government. State media is there for the purpose although if they overdo it they will lose credibility. The primary job of independent press is disclosure. “All else is advertising” declared Randolph Hearst, the media baron who built the largest newspaper chain in America mid-20th Century. “News is something someone does not want you to know”.
The government has still not tabled an RTI Bill for parliament to debate and pass into law. It is currently amending the original draft and there is some indication the administration hopes to table it before its term expires. Investigative journalism needs facts to work with beyond rumour, suspicion and conjecture.
Governments have secrets. Amendments to the Bill will seek to balance the public’s right to know with the administration’s need for cover. If parliament fails to pass an effective RTI Act, it could well become an election issue for 2013 – which will further sensitize the public and reduce trust in government.
Press will be handicapped if routine requests for information are stalled. The hitherto supreme power of government and the civil service needs to adjust to a democratic landscape where plural press is being promoted as a social good – along with transparency and accountability of governance.
Media policy? Killing press is a bad start
The first and most urgent action required of the policy makers is to stop the killing. Quality press is being devastated by distributing the limited government advertising across all new license holders irrespective of audience reach.
There seems to be much opportunism driving the fever to secure publishing licenses before the upcoming election. The unintended consequences of this government largesse are clear for all to see. It defeats the intent to promote a responsible and committed plural press.
ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) measurement needs press to submit verifiable print and sales records to certify average net sales per issue. It needs the co-operation of the industry.
Press with false sales claims will not want independent measurement. Established press will have the advantage of incumbency. So be it. The ABC is measured in six-month cycles and can be implemented for a coalition of the willing. When the new titles have the numbers to audit they can join the ABC process.
Alternatively, readerships can easily be measured through scientific surveys which yield far more information than net copy sales. IPSOS, Nielsen and TNS are global media research houses with proven methodologies for Net, TV and Hardcopy audiences. They can profile audiences of each channel and map media consumption habits without any input from the publications, websites or TV.
Audience research can be implemented in Thimpu where 80% of all newspapers are sold, through strict international supervision and local university field teams by end-year, if funds are made available.
Why use Govt. advertising to subsidise press?
Government advertising should serve the purpose; using it as a disguised subsidy to the undeserving defeats the intent of government funds. It will make sense to separate government advertising from press subsidy. Call a subsidy a subsidy and administer it accordingly.
National coverage for government announcements, tender invitations and job vacancies are effectively served by State TV and Radio. Press is a capital city phenomenon and ineffective for national reach. Almost 70% of citizens are out of press reach. Government can place its advertising where it works best. Capital city press has value in reaching the civil service elite, professionals and the urban middle class.
A press subsidy fund should have clear performance criteria for all titles. It should be performance-linked. More importantly, the issuing of any more press licenses should be stopped.
Measurement criteria should be objective and neutral. Those who meet the benchmarks can qualify to be subsidized annually. The quantum of subsidy can be pegged to measured readerships agreed through a government-industry consensus for sustainability. That can be reviewed annually to adjust for inflation.
Advertising distribution beyond the press subsidy should follow objective guidelines and not serve to tame press through selective patronage.
New publishers should have the funds to sustain without government advertising for at least 12 months so that they can qualify for press subsidy through ABC audits or readership surveys. Mere license approval should not entitle any publisher to join the dole queue. Press demanding government support without an audience is fraud.
New publishers cannot be subsidised at the expense of existing titles with proven audiences. If they do not have the start-up funds to sustain long enough to achieve audience certification, they should not be granted a license in the first place.
By stopping indiscriminate distribution of government funds to unproven press, a culling will happen naturally. A market in private media can develop thereafter for mergers and acquisitions to sort itself out without any more government intervention.
What about ‘yellow journalism’ & factual errors?
If ‘yellow journalism’ is to be curbed, an independent body should monitor that. Press self-regulation is a self-serving arrangement that has failed miserably in Britain and the USA.
Press is dangerous when it is free to pursue sales through cheap sensationalism, innuendo, sex scandals, titillation, gory crime and soft porn. The criminals cannot be allowed to police themselves. Their products do not serve society.
For errors of fact in reporting, an independent Press Ombudsman can be appointed with the power to investigate complaints and compel apologies to be printed by the offending publications. Press is notorious for not admitting factual errors. The damage inflicted through inaccurate reporting is real.
Centralized services to serve all media
The Kuensel has news bureaux across the country. That can be converted into a national news agency for the benefit of all media without wasteful duplication. Cost recovery can be through annual subscription fees. It should be independently managed.
Bhutan newspapers are printed on expensive woodfree (WF) paper stock because they have no access to roll-fed newsprint presses. Commercial sheet-fed presses cannot handle newsprint. A centralized newspaper press can serve all titles and be better utilized.
The cost of raw material (paper) can be reduced so that the cover price at which newspapers are sold can yield a surplus and contribute to revenues instead of adding deficits with each copy sold! It will also be much faster and allow later editorial-close deadlines. Economies of scale can be achieved by centralizing newspaper printing.
Government can contribute to these macro initiatives through a Govt-Industry partnership funding over a fixed time horizon. Similarly ‘in the cloud’ sophisticated digital publishing applications software can be accessed by all players to reach youth and remote locations via mobile and online delivery.
These are all macro-industry initiatives which benefit all players but are impossible for individual newspapers to implement on their own. Consultants with practical first-hand experience of these matters can be engaged to produce project assessments for government-industry partnership funding and implementation.
J-School, training & professional development
Is journalism a passion, a mission or a profession? Some of the most outstanding journalists today (and in media history) never attended J-school. J-schools are good at turning out academics. Great journalists are driven by a passion to serve society. Is politics a passion, a mission or a profession? Are great politicians turned out by political science courses?
In Bhutan’s context, unless the press sustainability issue is quickly addressed, a J-school institution will be a misdirection of effort, energy and investment. There will be no private media of any size to employ the output of the J-school. It will become another employment burden for State TV, Radio and Kuensel: Government all over again. (Kuensel is 51% owned by government).
What is the sustainable size of an independent media sector for a city population of 100,000 (Thimpu)? What are the HRD projections of annual employment in journalism and media management? What is the projected growth rate of media to be able to absorb J-school output over the next 10 years?
It will be far more effective to take promising journalists from existing media and attach them to leading Press, TV, Radio and Online sites around the region to observe, practise and learn skills which they can use to upgrade their publications in Bhutan. Exposure beyond Bhutan is vital.
Newly retired senior journalists from ASEAN, India and elsewhere can immediately add value onsite through daily training and skills enhancement on the job. J-schools are already well behind the curve on converging media platforms and new business models. Their textbooks are decades out of relevance.
Short term attachments of leading designers, production quality experts, marketing managers and circulation promotion talent can likewise upgrade the industry immediately. These are investments viable media can make without government intervention.
If commercially viable media is not enabled, there is little hope for press capacity to absorb J-school output. Is it responsible to generate graduates who cannot be employed? How healthy is that for democracy?
It will be far more useful to add media literacy, journalism and media management electives to BBA, BCom and MBA courses so that the graduates have a wider range of employment prospects and career options.
(Cyril Pereira is a Malaysian residing in Hongkong since 1985. He was the director of Newspaper Ops at SCMP for 15 years, and director-publisher of Asia Magazine for 12 years. He was the chairman of the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) for an unprecedented four terms. He co-founded the Asian Publishing Convention in 2007. He has consulting projects since 2001 in China, Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Myanmar, India. He also writes about Asian politics, media and management issues in his blog, pereiraview.blogspot.com, from where we have reproduced his article.)Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley, who has been leading the Bhutanese delegation for Rio+20 in Brazil, called on Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa.
During the discussion, PM Thinley is learnt to have shared with the Lankan President how Bhutan was successful in developing a ‘happiness Index’.
According to a report in the Daily News, the two leaders discussed ways of developing such a programme in Sri Lanka with Bhutanese assistance.
“The Bhutanese PM on the occasion also shared information with President Rajapaksa on the upcoming elections in Bhutan,” said the report.
The Premier pointed out that as in Sri Lanka, there was an inclination by youth to join politics in Bhutan and described it as a positive trend, according to the report.
It further said that Lankan ministers G.L.Peiris, Wimal Weerawansa, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Patali Champika Ranawaka, Mahinda Amaraweera and Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunge also took part in the discussions.
PM Thinley also met with the United Nations’ Secretary General (SG) Ban Ki-Moon in New York on June 19.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister briefed the SG about developments of April’s meeting on happiness, and even presented copies of related documents.
Dear High Commissioner,
Reporters Without Borders, the leading international NGO defending freedom of information, is extremely concerned about the situation of journalists who apply to UNHCR for protection in the first country they reach after fleeing their own country.
By providing information about the situation of their fellow citizens, by interviewing government opponents, and by drawing attention to human rights violations, corruption and misrule, journalists attract the hostility of regimes and influential groups that do not tolerate freely reported news and information.
Because of their work, journalists are exposed to serious reprisals. Many are forced to flee abroad to escape physical violence, threats, arrests and arbitrary jail sentences. Journalists are easy to identify because they sign articles, appear on TV and speak on the radio. When they flee to a nearby country and register with UNHCR, they continue to be at the mercy of the regimes they are trying to escape because their names, faces and voices are known.
This was seen when Eritrean journalist Jamal Osman Hamad was arrested in Khartoum on 24 October 2011, less than a week after Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki visited his Sudanese counterpart, and 300 Eritrean citizens were deported to their country of origin without UNHCR being able to examine their cases.
Our concern increased when Rwandan journalist Charles Ingabire was gunned down in Kampala on 30 November 2011 in very unclear circumstances. Reporters Without Borders is convinced that an act of political revenge cannot be ruled out.
It is clear that the Rwandan, Eritrean, Ethiopian and Iranian governments, like Somalia’s Al-Shabaab and Latin America’s drug traffickers, have an ability to do harm that reaches well beyond their own borders.
It must however be recognized that, as things stand, there is no adequate mechanism for protecting asylum-seeking journalists (and other news providers), who are all, by the nature of their work, also human rights defenders. Reporters Without Borders would therefore to like propose that local UNHCR offices adopt the following dedicated procedures for the protection of journalists.
Reporters Without Borders asks UNHCR to establish an alert mechanism with a designated referral officer within each of its local offices so that cases of persons who are in particular danger can be identified and handled more quickly. As Reporters Without Borders is in regular contact with journalists who have decided to flee abroad to safeguard their safety and freedom, and as it systematically conducts an investigation whenever it is contacted by a journalist seeking its protection, it is in a position to act as guarantor of the identity and background of journalists who approach UNHCR protection officers.
Adequate safety measures must also be adopted for refugee journalists (and other human rights defenders) including a programme of urban shelters (away from the regular refugee camps), safehouses, and emergency alert and protection mechanisms. Reporters Without Borders has been helping refugee journalists for more than 20 years but, although we are in constant contact with them and give them advice and guidance, we do not have the human and financial resources to enable them to meet their daily needs, including their security needs. It is vital that journalists should have greater access to the emergency resettlement process and to the UN’s mechanism for temporary evacuation to a safe third country. UNHCR should work to obtain greater participation in these programmes by countries that can offer safe refuge.
Reporters Without Borders also urges the United Nations to publicly acknowledge that its traditional protection procedure is not appropriate for threatened journalists and to ask member states to help to make up for the shortcomings. This would enable UNHCR to overcome the culpable inaction of certain western government that use the overall quota as an excuse for doing nothing, although more than 260 journalists have been killed in connection with their work in the past five years and 154 are currently detained.
Our organization very much hopes that you will come out in favour of specific and more personalized treatment of resettlement requests by journalists and human rights defenders who are threatened in transit countries. We also hope that our recommendations will help to bring about a more general overhaul of UNHCR procedures.
We stand ready to provide you with any additional information and to meet with you to discuss these recommendations further. Sincerely,
Olivier Basille
Director General
Reporters Without Borders
Editor’s note: This is a copy of the letter sent by Reporters Without Borders to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Bhutanese counterpart, Jigmi Y. Thinley, on Thursday expressed willingness to establish formal diplomatic ties between their countries.
The two leaders met here on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, known as the Rio+20 summit, which started Wednesday afternoon.
Wen said China highly appreciates Bhutan’s staunch support of China’s position on issues concerning Taiwan and Tibet.
China, Wen said, also values the traditional friendship between the two nations and respects Bhutan’s choice for its development path according to its own national conditions.
Noting that China pursues a foreign policy of good-neighborliness, Wen said China is ready to forge formal diplomatic relations with Bhutan on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
Meanwhile, Wen said, China is willing to complete border demarcation with Bhutan at an early date and strengthen exchanges in various fields so as to push bilateral ties to a higher level.
For his part, Thinley said his talks with Wen carry great historic significance as it marks the first meeting between the heads of the two governments.
The Bhutanese, he said, highly appreciate China’s endeavor to safeguard the common interests of developing countries in international and regional affairs.
Bhutan firmly sticks to a one-China policy and has strong desire to strengthen understanding of and friendship with China, Thinley said.
He confirmed that Bhutan wishes to forge formal diplomatic ties with China as soon as possible.
Courtesy : The China Daily
National Pension and Provident Fund (NPPF) has announced that there can be no pension provision for the members of parliament irrespective of the number of years they might serve in the parliament.
The announcement came after the directives was issued in the last session of National Assembly to NPPF and Finance Ministry to chalk out a scheme of including the MPs in the provision.
MP Sonam Penjor raise the concern of bearing similar uncertainties of future by MPs too as any of the civil servant do. He requested the house to redirect NPPF once again to find a way out for the parliamentarians to get the pension.
Another MP, Karma Rangdol argued the pension provision playing a factor to attract good people in the politics in future.
Minister of Economic Affairs, Khandu Wangchuk justified the logic to have pension for parliamentarians.
He said, “it is important to strengthen the roots of democracy by encouraging capable leaders to join politics”.
The discussion in the matter was shortened by the order of the House Speaker, who said that house had not included the pension provision during the formulation of parliamentary entitlement rules.
