DUSHANBE, July 4, 2014, Asia-Plus – On Wednesday July 2, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov met in London with Baroness D”Souza, Lord Speaker (the speaker of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom).
According to the Tajik MFA information department, the two discussed issues related to further expansion of inter-parliamentary cooperation between Tajikistan and the United Kingdom.
Baroness D”Souza and Sirojiddin Aslov reportedly highly appraised expansion of inter-parliamentary cooperation between the two countries.
They also exchanged views on a number of regional issues being of mutual interest, including the current situation in Afghanistan, the Tajik MFA information department said.
Frances Gertrude Claire D”Souza, Baroness D”Souza, CMG PC (born 18 April 1944) is a British scientist and life peer in the House of Lords. On 13 July 2011, D”Souza was elected Lord Speaker of the House of Lords on July 13, 2011 and began her new role on September 2011. D”Souza now formally sits as a non-affiliated member of the House of Lords.
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster. Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons and members of the Lords may also take on roles as Government Ministers.
Membership was once a birthright of hereditary peers. Following a series of reforms, 92 members (as of 2014) still sit in the Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage. Since the vast majority of hereditary peerages can only be inherited by males, only two of these 92 are currently women. The number of members is not fixed; as of 11 June 2012, the House of Lords has 763 members (not including 49 who are on leave of absence or who are otherwise disqualified from sitting), unlike the House of Commons, which has a 650-seat fixed membership.
