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Fourth Session Roundup of Youth Parliament of Pakistan
May 06, 2009 - May 10, 2009

Background of the Youth Parliament

Youth Parliament Pakistan (YPP) has been 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 YPP functions like mock parliament of Pakistan providing its members (MYPs) a chance to undergo a parliamentary experience while also preparing the next generation for a career in parliamentary politics of the country. The Youth Parliament Pakistan, which has 60 members from all over the country aged between 18 and 29, is a platform for the young to face the pressure of adversarial politics and discuss issues of concern, work on analytical skills, refine their etiquette of articulation and thus undergo a process of political growth. PILDAT believes that such an exercise would provide the youth an opportunity of political evolution and will thus pave way for good governance.

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 behavior. The Youth Parliament project is supported by the British High Commission while Geo Television is Media Partners with the Youth Parliament Pakistan.

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.

Fourth Session

May 06, 2009 – May 10, 2009

The fourth session of Youth Parliament Pakistan was scheduled from Wednesday May 06 to Sunday May 10, 2009 at Hotel Margala Islamabad. The fourth session of the Youth Parliament Pakistan was presided over by Mr. Wazir Ahmed Jogezai, Former Deputy Speaker National Assembly of Pakistan and an esteemed member of the Youth Parliament Steering Committee. The parliament discussed: Impact of National & International Media on Pakistani Society, Terrorism and its Impact on Cricket and Local Governments: Review and Reform. In addition to these, arrest of Pakistani students in the UK, soft-loan policy with easy documentation process for youth to pursue their education in the country and abroad were also a part of the agenda and were discussed in the house. The house supported the Military action in Swat valley to eradicate the militants as well.

To discuss the impact of national and international media on Pakistani Society, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal; Secretary Information – PML-N, MNA and former Federal Minister of Education, appeared before the parliament as guest speaker. Mr. Ahsan Iqbal while talking to the MYPs said that no government should be given the credit for the freedom of media, it’s all because of the revolution in the field of information technology and neither any dictator nor any democratic government can curb it. Likewise, to get expert insight into terrorism and its impacts on cricket, the YPP hosted Mr. Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf and Former Captain of Pakistan cricket team, who delivered an extensive speech on the topic saying that cricket is also suffered as a collateral damage in so called war against terrorism, adding further to it he said Instead of giving shut up call to Do more orders by US, Pakistan government is following the Give us more Dollars and we would Do More killings strategy and putting the nation and people of Pakistan on stake and later answered questions posed by the MYPs. To discuss the Local Governments: Reform & Review Mr. Daniyal Aziz, former MNA and Principal Advisor of Governance Institutes Network International - GINI was invites he said that Local government is the best to empower the democracy at the grass root level and the local government is threatened by the traditional bureaucratic method of governance and its efforts and attempts of power snatching, causing hindrances in the smooth functioning of the local government system.

The Blue party was advised Dr. Donya Aziz, MNA and the co-party adviser was Ms. Tehmina Dasti (former MNA) while Green party was advised by Mr. Khurram Dastgir Khan, MNA and the co-party adviser was Ms. Anusha Rehman Khan, MNA.

In the visitors’ gallery sat Ms. Sarah Parvez and Mr. Kabir Sabar; these two are also part of the Independent Steering Committee on the Youth Parliament Pakistan.

In the miscellaneous business, Members of the Parliament drew the attention of the house to the deduction of the funds to the Strategic Planning Division up to 35 per cent. Other discussions ranged from the introduction of new set of law of land reforms by the government of Pakistan and its distribution among the general masses to end up feudalism and WADERA SHAHI in Pakistan, development in the agriculture sector and establishing new research institutes, the implementation of Nizam-e-Adal regulation in Swat and the problems associated representing hindrance to peace in the region.

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