Islamabad, May 04: To resolve sectarian conflict in Gilgit Baltistan and to remove trust deficit, dialogue is the only way forward, agreed . legislators who believed they can play an important role in facilitating the discourse between conflicting groups. Members from Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly joined a PILDAT workshop on �How to Resolve Real Conflicts� held in Islamabad.

To assist the members of the Legislative Assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan in enhancing the conflict resolution and negotiation strategies, a mock simulation exercise was conducted by a seasoned instructor, Mohammed Feyyaz, who has extensive experience of leading similar workshops in renowned national institutions, based on a live issue of Sectarian conflict in GB.

The workshop was attended by Mr. Jamil Ahmed Deputy Speaker GBLA, Ministers and members of Gilgit Baltistan legislative Assembly. Eighteen (18) members of the G-B Legislative Assembly while the Secretary and the Additional Secretary of G-B Legislative Assembly also took part in the simulation exercise.

A background paper on �Sectarian Conflict in GILGIT-Baltistan� to assist the participants was also presented at the workshop.

Groups were briefed on how to understand the contours of a conflict and prepare negotiation points in each group. Actively assisted by the Conductor on the strategies of negotiations, they faced each other on the negotiation table. Skilfully managed, the talks achieved meaningful result and the opponents agreed in a media debrief that the proponents had valid concerns about the lack of development on sectarian conflict and that talks must continue.

The workshop is the 3rd of the series of exercises being organised by PILDAT on How to Resolve Real Conflicts to enhance conflict understanding, resolution and negotiation strategies among elected legislators and office bearers of major political parties through which participants will be trained through an opportunity to resolve a real issue, in a real time setting, through simulated role playing so as to generate meaningful solutions to the issue.