The PILDAT Annual Report 2008-2009 covers the period from July 01, 2008 to June 30, 2009. During this year, PILDAT focussed on policy review and highlighting key issues facing the country through expert dialogue and discussion in the public domain.
PILDAT’s focus on conflict resolution and promoting better understanding on civil-military relations led to the organization for an International Conference on Civil-Military Relations where experts on civil-military relations from India, Turkey, Indonesia, Latin America & Europe were part of the exclusive conference to present case studies and best practices on how to maintain and manage civil-military relations within an established constitutional and legal framework and move towards democratic consolidation. Pakistani Experts and academics, representatives of political parties and representatives of the Pakistani government were also part of the two-day conference to discuss and brainstorm issues affecting civil-military relations in Pakistan and to reiterate the parameters of exclusive domains, as well as the overlapping and shared areas, of the civil and the military in Pakistan as a way forward for the country.
To review the current structure, constitutional and legal framework, issues, on-going insurgency in FATA and formulate recommendations for addressing the political, social-economic and security issues for the consideration of the Parliament and implementation by the Government of Pakistan, PILDAT initiated a Policy Panel on FATA. The Policy Panel on FATA carried out its mission and work for its objective in a responsible, serious, objective and non-partisan manner. The Group realizes that any comment made by the Group may have ramifications for the foreign policy and internal security of the country and it will, therefore, exercise utmost caution and a practical and pragmatic approach in arriving at a policy recommendation. The Panel held the national interest above all other considerations.
Since2006, PILDAT continued to make modest efforts to promote a dialogue between persons from the western world and those who belong to the Muslim World especially Pakistan. During this year, the PILDAT Dialogue Series on Understanding Relations between the Muslims and the Western World: with Special Focus on Pakistan became a multi-pronged initiative. Using the medium of dialogue and debates to provide a forum for a civilised and peaceful exchange of opinions on some of the deeply-held notions and perspectives, the PILDAT dialogue series involved both youth and seasoned policy makers and analysts into its fold to discuss some of the key issues that impinge on Pakistan’s internal and external image, the issues of identity and ideology, internal and external relations, governance and politics, etc. The dialogue series on the one hand brought together celebrated foreign experts on Pakistan alongside foreign legislators of Pakistani origin from countries such as UK, USA, Canada, Norway and New Zealand to exchange views and analysis on myths and realities about Pakistan’s relations with the Western World while an in-country innovative format of televised debates was launched to involve youth and seasoned experts together to engage on some of the key issues facing Pakistan that, despite the mushrooming news media, are not discussed on mainstream television.
PILDAT took up another first-of-its-kind initiative in which, in addition to focussing on MNAs’ role inside the National Assembly, the project on Roles and Responsibilities of MNA aimed at constituency relations of MNAs. The project strove to address the disparity in ‘Constituents’ Expectations’ & ‘Assigned Role’ of MNAs and to work towards facilitating MNAs to systematically address their constituency issues as well as create an awareness in constituents to hold their MNA to account on his/her performance in the National Assembly.
