We take our democracy so much for granted.  We have forgotten how many freedoms are newly won, and how hard we worked for them.  Universal male suffrage, introduced in 1918, was to enable all soldiers returning from the front to have the right to vote for the first time. The vote was also granted for the first time to women over 30; women only having the right to vote at 21, the same age as men, in 1928.

We have forgotten that the 1944 Education Act brought access to free secondary education for everyone up to the age of 15 for the first time, opening up opportunities to women and to the working class. Many terms are now used in our every day lives and accepted as part of our rights within the UK that are less than forty years old. The Equal Pay Act of 1970 heralded forty years of legislation making discrimination on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, religion, colour, disability illegal.  Yet many people now take no interest in politics and fail to vote.

Compare this with PILDAT, the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency.  This agency was set up in 2002 when elections to the National Assembly, after 3 years of military dictatorship, meant that 95% of the new MNA’s (Members of the National Assembly), had never been elected before.  The aim of PILDAT was to build the ability and understanding of the new MNA’s and to build national institutions based on trust, transparency and honesty.

To gain experience of how MNA’s could and should carry out their responsibilities PILDAT organises briefing papers, workshops and study visits to democratic countries such as India, America, Germany and the UK. Because of my interest in Pakistan I was invited to bring two of the visiting MNA’s and one of PILDAT’s organisers to Bridgend to experience the constituency work of an MP. 

The ladies arrived on Thursday evening and we headed off to meet Councillor Mel Nott the leader of Bridgend County Borough Council and Superintendent Tim Jones from south Wales police. The visit was planned to be brief but quickly developed into a discussion on the limits of political power in the UK. We ate out at LaRaj in South Cornelly and the ladies were enthusiastic about the food saying it was the best they had eaten in the week they had been in the UK.  A night in the Atlantic hotel over looking the sea was a rare treat for them and set them up for my usual hectic Friday.

The first appointment was in Porthcawl with Mr and Mrs John, to present a veterans badge in recognition of his army service. The concept of the badge and the welcome by Mr and Mrs John’s captivated the three ladies. We moved on to Tesco’s in Bridgend to hand over to staff and pupils of four local schools, IT equipment, obtained as part of the Tesco IT reward scheme.  Again the ladies were amazed by the idea.  They instantly began talking of their much smaller shops being able to help provide books, paper, pencils, even shoes for their pupils and how they could begin to organise this.  The global recession has hit Pakistan badly and many Government schools are struggling to pay their teachers and basic equipment is hard for parents to fund.

The third visit of the morning was to Bridgend College where we held a question and answer session with students.  One of the students did not know who his MP was, this evoked a shocked reaction from the visitors who felt  that everyone in Pakistan would know who was their MNA.  Constituencies in Pakistan have over 300,000 voters so this is a huge recognition factor.  This was for me the most enjoyable part of the programme.  I found we shared a commitment to improving the quality of life in our constituencies and how this kept us all going through long days.

In some respects my life is so much easier that that of an MNA. They are expected to attend weddings and funerals most of the weekend.  When in their office, they have hundreds of people clambering at the door wanting to see them.  Without email, phones, and a high illiteracy rate, face to face meetings are the norm.  All of the communications that I deal with via these methods would end up at their door.

My next meeting was with Her Majesties Customs and Revenue to discuss an issue they wanted me to assist with, I have to confess dear reader, I abandoned the three ladies in MrArthur Glen for an hour.  They did not seem to mind too much.

Our final visit was to the Mosque in Aberkenfig and a chance to meet with a few of the members of the local Muslim community. It was then off to the station and the three ladies headed back to London and I headed on to my next meeting.  A fascinating chance to share our difference and to appreciate what we have gained, but also what we have lost, here in the UK.