Young grads work as research associates of lawmakers

Islamabad: For the first time in the country's history, young graduates in the public administration, social sciences, human resource development, computer sciences and business administration have got an opportunity to serve as research associates with their respective members of national, provincial and regional assemblies.

The initiative has been taken under the Prime Minister’s Youth Training Scheme, one of the six schemes of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme meant for the socio-economic development of youths to reduce unemployment in the country.

As part of the efforts to include youths in the political process, the interns were placed to help their respective members of parliament in carrying out their legislative business more effectively on the basis of well-researched in put on various socio-economic issues.

In order to prepare them for the said role, they were imparted two days compulsory training at the Pakistan institute of Parliamentary Services, Islamabad. Honouring their personal choice to work with the parliamentarians, initially 871 interns were placed with their respective lawmakers.

Among them, 369 were selected for the National Assembly, 124 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, 345 for Punjab Assembly, and 33 for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly. However, 49 per cent of them i.e. 423 interns, are currently working on their respective assignments with parliamentarians.

Among them, 213 are with the National Assembly, 71 with the KP Assembly, 108 with Punjab Assembly and 31 with GB Assembly. The rest have either not joined internships or abandoned them to take up suitable employment opportunities.

Prime Minister’s Youth Programme chairperson Leila Khan termed the development the beginning of a new parliamentary culture in the country. "Youths have been granted a unique opportunity to become active part of the mainstream political process," he said.