PILDAT Annual Report 2003-2004

Download Annual Report 2003-2004

This is the second annual report of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency – PILDAT, which covers the period from July 01, 2003 to June 30, 2004. During the year PILDAT’s organisational activities were dominated by capacity building activities for legislators, publication of democracy reports, international study tours for legislators, launching the Parliamentary Internship Programme – PIP, and facilitation in the formation of multi-party caucuses within the Parliament (such as the Young Parliamentarians Forum – YPF, the Legislative Strengthening Group – LSG, and the Parliamentarians Consultative Group on Women’s Issues – PCGWI). During this period, PILDAT held 17 capacity building activities for legislators, facilitated 3 international study tours to Germany and the UK, and released 38 publications, including State of Democracy Reports, the Directory of the Members of the 12th National Assembly of Pakistan, 12 briefing papers, 2 background papers, 4 case studies for parliamentarians and 15 event proceedings.

During this period, PILDAT activities expanded both in terms of number, diversity and coverage. An important milestone was the support received from USAID on the projects conceived and proposed by PILDAT as a part of the Strengthening National and Provincial Legislative Governance project in Pakistan. While this project offers a number of challenges both on the political and managerial plane, this also offers opportunity to implement a number of activities which may go a long way in strengthening democratic institutions in the country. Expansion in the activities during the year also led to a significant increase in the staff and office infrastructure. PILDAT moved to a more spacious and centrally located premises in Lahore and established an office in Islamabad as well. During the year, PILDAT also introduced the Provident Fund and Medical Insurance facilities for its staff.

PILDAT completed its cycle of reaching out to all the six legislatures of Pakistan by holding capacity-building sessions for all of them during the year. Another milestone was reached with the completion of the first year of publication of the State of Democracy Report. Launching of a comprehensive Directory of the 12th National Assembly of Pakistan was another significant activity by PILDAT during the year.

PILDAT thanks the learned resource persons who authored briefing papers or helped us in delivering the Legislative Capability-building workshops and briefings. We also thank all those legislators and legislative staff who participated in the programmes and offered advice in improving these programmes.

I wish to thank our supporters especially the Department for International Development – DFID (UK), the United States Agency for International Development – USAID, International Foundation for Election Systems – IFES and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung for the support extended to the projects conceived by PILDAT and proposed for their support .

I wish to thank the members of our Board of Advisors and the Board of Directors for their guidance, time and valuable advice to advance the programme of PILDAT.

Lastly, I wish to thank my colleagues in PILDAT who worked hard and with dedication and conviction, sometimes making sacrifices of their personal time as well, to befittingly implement PILDAT projects.