Islamabad, December 16: PILDAT hosted a Skill- Building Workshop on Conflict Management: the Mediation Process for Parliamentarians, Parliamentary Staff, political parties� representatives, including women and youth, and the media on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 in Islamabad.

The workshop was conducted by Ms. Nina Sughrue, an international Conflict Resolution expert affiliated with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Senior Parliamentarians including Senator Jahangir Badar, Mr. Haider Abbas Rizvi, MNA; Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, MNA; Ms. Tahira Aurangzeb, MNA; Malak Azmat Khan, MNA; Senator Mushahid ullah Khan and Capt (Retd.) Rai Mujtaba Kharral, MNA; etc. took part in the workshop and its various skill-building exercises. Representatives from Women and Youth Wings from the PPPP, PML-N, PML, MQM, Jamaat-e-Islami and Markazi Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadeeth took part in the workshop in addition to members of Youth Parliament Pakistan.

A background paper on Conflict Management: The Mediation Process was especially prepared by PILDAT for the participants of the Skills-building Workshops, in addition to workshop materials and exercises developed by the resource person.

Earlier, PILDAT held similar orientation workshops for Members of Parliament at Islamabad, Members of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh at Karachi and a joint workshop for Members of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab, Members of Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), and Members of the then-Northern Areas Legislative Assembly, now known as Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

Elected legislators engage in the resolution of many conflicts � in their constituencies, at the local level, within legislatures, regionally, nationally and internationally. The basic objective of the PILDAT programme is to build conflict resolution capabilities of legislators so that they are better equipped to play their role as mediators in various conflicts in society. It is envisaged that by building the conflict resolution capabilities of elected legislators at all levels, our efforts should contribute positively towards Pakistani legislators� long-term ability to respond and diffuse conflict at all levels.