Youth Parliament of Pakistan

Youth Parliament Pakistan is a project launched in 2007 by the PILDAT to engage youth in Pakistan in healthy discourse and expose them to the democratic process and practices. Members of Youth Parliament Pakistan are selected for duration of a year at a time. The first batch of Youth Parliament Pakistan was selected in 2007 and from thereon, Youth Parliament has had three batches so far including 2007 batch,[1] 2008-09 batch[2] and 2009-10 batch.[3]

Establishment and facilitation of the Youth Parliament Pakistan 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 in the country. PILDAT strongly feels that sustainable democracy and the sustainability of sound democratic institutions in Pakistan is not possible without youth's involvement in the democratic and political process even if this involvement is simply as a citizen or voter.

The Youth Parliament Pakistan project is currently supported by the Royal Danish Embassy, Islamabad in recognition of the importance of young people's involvement in democracy and democratic practices in Pakistan.

Objectives

The specific objectives of Youth Parliament Pakistan are to educate Pakistani Youth about politics and democracy and to demonstrate to them how parliaments are able:

  • to do legislation;
  • to debate matters of national and international concern;
  • to demand accountability from those in government;
  • to discuss legislation in committee;
  • to change government without recourse to civil disorder;
  • to make and enforce their own rules of conduct.

In addition Youth parliament Pakistan serves as a useful forum to voice views of the Youth about a range of national and international issues. The debates in the Youth Parliament Pakistan are meant to not only help the young members in their personal development as a useful citizen, these also serve the purpose of articulating views of the youth on vital issues facing the nation and conveying these to the Government.

Key Features of the Youth Parliament Pakistan

As a model Parliament for young people, the Youth Parliament Pakistan is patterned after the National Assembly of Pakistan although its membership is smaller than that of the National Assembly. Wherever possible, the Youth Parliament of Pakistan follows the rules of procedures as close to the National Assembly of Pakistan as practical. However, practices from other Parliaments are also adopted to expose Pakistani Youth to comparative parliamentary practices.

Membership

The total membership of Youth Parliament is 60. The breakdown of membership is as follows:

Provinces/Areas No. of Seats
Punjab 28
Sindh 12
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) 07
Balochistan 05
Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 03
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) 02
Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) 02
Gilgit-Baltistan (NA) 01
Total Membership 60[4]

References

  1. 2007 batch Archived October 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  2. 2008 batch Archived October 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. 2009 batch Archived October 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 26, 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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