Capacity building: British MPs engage with Pakistani MNAs

Two British MPs arrived on a three-day visit to Pakistan to engage with young Pakistani parliamentarians.

Two British members of parliament (MPs) arrived on a three-day visit to Pakistan to engage with young Pakistani parliamentarians, said a press release issued by the British Council here on Thursday.

The MPs, John Glenn (Conservatives) and Lilian Greenwood (Labour), will spend a day in peer-to-peer engagement with their Pakistani counterparts, mainly looking at how resources available to members of parliament can be best used.

This is significant in the backdrop of young Pakistani MNAs taking more senior and active roles in the parliament; Hina Rabbani Khar, one of country’s youngest foreign minister, for instance.

The local parliamentarians who will take part in the discussions are all members of the Young Parliamentarians Forum, an under 40s caucus set up in 2002, of which MNA Donya Aziz is the chairperson.

The forum has partnered with both Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and British Council to launch a pilot project aimed at supporting MNAs to be more effective in their roles and responsibilities.

This event will be followed up by a training session for MNA support staff, to be led by senior staffers to UK MPs.

The trip is part of the effort of WFD working towards closer cooperation and interaction between different democracies of the world and is being facilitated by the UK’s democracy Foundation, the WFD in London and the British Council Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2011.