Lahore, May 28: PILDAT held an exclusive Skills Building Workshop on Conflict Transformation: Dynamics, Skills and Strategies for members of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, youth wings of major political parties and Secretariat staff of the Punjab assembly of the Pakistan today in Lahore.

The workshop, which was conducted by Dr. Syed Rifaat Hussain, a Conflict Resolution Expert/Workshop Resource Person. A background paper on Conflict Transformation: Dynamics, Skills and Strategies in English and Urdu languages 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.

PILDAT has completed a round of Skills-Building Workshops on Conflict Management: The Negotiation Strategies and Conflict Management: the Mediation Process with the Parliament of Pakistan, Provincial Assemblies of Punjab and Sindh and Legislative Assemblies of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. This workshop was organised as a second round of same series of the Skills-Building Workshops under the theme of Conflict Transformation.

The basic objective of the PILDAT programme is to enhance the conflict resolution capabilities of elected legislators so that they are better equipped to play their role as mediators in various conflicts in the society and in their respective legislatures. 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 conflicts at all levels.

Members of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, senior members of the secretariat staff of the Punjab Assembly, representatives from major political parties and youth groups took part in the workshop.

The workshop was organized as part of the PILDAT project of Orientation of Members of National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies on Conflict Resolution that is supported by the British High Commission, Islamabad through Conflict Pool.