Pakistan's Youth Parliament sits

10.00.00am GMT Sat 10th Feb 2007

The delegates in the UK-Pakistan talks

You may recall last May I went to Pakistan with a number of other young politicians. One of the things to come out of this was the creation of a Youth Parliament. PILDAT, the organisers, have just emailed me about it, below is a report that I thought it would be good to share with you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The First Session

The First-ever Youth Parliament of Pakistan held its first session at Islamabad from January 24 to January 28, 2007. Conceived and initiated by PILDAT (Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency), a research and training institute focused on strengthening democracy and democratic institutions, the Youth Parliament Pakistan provided "Youth MPs or MYPs" a chance to experience life in the parliamentary spotlight and at the same time show how the next generation would approach parliamentary politics in Pakistan. The Youth Parliament, which has 60 members from all over the country aged between 18 and 29, provided a platform for the young to face the pressure of adversarial politics and discuss issues of concern to young people in Pakistan. The Youth Parliament has a Visitors' Gallery and a Press Gallery in line with the parliamentary practices.

Senator Mohammedmian Soomro, Chairman Senate, as the patron of the Youth Parliament, inaugurated the Youth Parliament on January 25, 2007. Senator. S. M. Zafar, Chairman Youth Parliament Steering Committee, Mr. Wazir Ahmed Jogezai as Speaker, 1st Session of Youth Parliament and Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob also spoke on the occasion.

Background of the Youth Parliament

The idea behind Youth Parliament is to inculcate in youth the values and culture of democracy as central to effective governance in any society. The Youth Parliament has been designed to demonstrate to Youth how Parliament is able to make legislation; to debate matters of national and international concern; to demand accountability from those in government; to change government without recourse to civil disorder; and to make and enforce their own rules of conduct, practice and behaviour.

Establishment and facilitation of the Youth Parliament is part of PILDAT's focus on Youth in the country and Youth's awareness education and training in the norms of politics and democracy. The membership of Youth Parliament has been selected from across Pakistan through an intensive evaluation and interview process by an independent steering committee including MPs, former Speakers, representative of Ministry of Youth Affairs and PILDAT. The membership reflects number of seats according to regional proportion on population basis as is the practice in the National Assembly of Pakistan. No educational qualification criterion was set for seeking membership. Instead, the only requirement included the capacity to read, write and speak Urdu so as not to discriminate against a large population of youth of Pakistan on the basis of education and not to let the Youth Parliament become a forum for the elite.

The Youth Parliament project received cooperation of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Pakistan while the project is supported by the Global Opportunities Fund of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Germany

Overview of Youth Parliament Session

The first ever Youth Parliament Pakistan held four sittings during the first session along with the orientation and inaugural sessions. The youth MPs were given detailed briefing on their roles and responsibilities as members in the light of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of Youth Parliament Pakistan. Following parliamentary practices, two mock parties were created: the Green Party (the Traditionalists) and the Blue Party (the Liberals) and "MYPs" joined one of the two parties. Two party advisers each were selected from the Youth Parliament Steering Committee to advise each party on its functions as a parliamentary party and to elect its leaders. Dr. Donya Aziz, MNA and Mr. Abdul Qadir, FES, served as advisers to the Blue Party while Rai Azizullah, MNA and Mr. Talib Hussain Sial, Ministry of Youth Affairs were advisers to the Green Party. The orientation session included separate party caucusing in which both parties elected their leaders and office bearers. The majority party the Blue Party formed the Youth Government. Youth MPs were elected by Youth Parliament to serve as Prime Minister, Ministers, Leader of the Opposition, shadow Ministers and government and opposition backbenchers. Mr. Basil Nabi Malik, (Constituency Number YP-50-SINDH03), belonging to the Blue Party, commanded the confidence of the House as the Youth Prime Minister. Ms. Mariam Raza Zaidi was elected as the Leader of the Opposition Youth Parliament while Ms. Mehvish Muneera Ismail was elected as the Deputy Speaker of Youth Parliament. The Youth Prime Minister also announced his 6 member cabinet which was administered oath by the Speaker Youth Parliament. The Opposition youth party also announced its shadow cabinet. Members of Youth Parliament were elected for 7 committees including Committees on Foreign Affairs & Defence, Law and Human Rights & Parliamentary Affairs, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, Education, Health and Environment, Finance, Planning Affairs, Economics, Information and Ethics.

The agenda included question time, public policy debates, votes on Bills and government motions, etc. All the four sittings saw a lively debate from both sides of the aisle on a number of issues including deteriorating law and order situation in the country, input of youth in draft youth policy before it is finalized, poverty and unemployment in the youth, current zakat system and current vulgarity and obscenity in media.

The session was prorogued till the next session expected to take place in the first week of March 2007.