Members of Pakistan National Assembly on a study tour to India

New Delhi, Nov 19 : Members of Pakistan National Assembly are on a six-day study tour to India, to get acquainted with the Indian ways of democracy and meet the officials of the Election Commission.

The study tour organised by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) aims at providing an opportunity to the Pakistani legislators to learn from and share the best practices of the legislative and democratic tools that streamline Indian Parliamentary democracy.

The major objective of the visit includes acquainting the Pakistani legislators with the tools, techniques and best practices of the Indian legislative and democratic system.

Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director of PILDAT said that the Indian democracy is about strength and Pakistan is also following the same footsteps, something that was evident from the last elections.

"One important fact that we have realized is that in India there is continuity of the democratic process and because of this, there is strength and stability here. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Pakistan. Also, the election commission here is independent and it is strong also due to which there is hardly any election dispute. Fortunately even in Pakistan this time, the elections were conducted without any dispute," said Mehboob.

Apart from the study tour, their visit has coupled as a cultural exchange program and one that is helping in creating cordial relations between the legislators of the two countries.

"This is helping us in exchange of ideas and thoughts. When our parliamentary and cultural groups meet there is a scope for creating a cordial environment to understand each other, understand each other's problems and solve them through a dialogue," said Farzana Raza, Federal Minister and Chairperson of Benazir income support program, women, Punjab, Pakistan.

The legislators from Pakistan said that they would interact with the Indian parliamentarians and explain that the newly democratically elected government in Pakistan is ready for talks.

ANI