ISLAMABAD - A 19-member multiparty parliamentary delegation of Pakistan is set to leave for India on August 17 to participate in the second round of two-day Pakistan-India Parliamentary Dialogue-II and discuss issues with their Indian counterparts that impact the relations of both the countries. The two-day dialogue will be held on August 18 and 19 simultaneously in New Delhi where Pakistani MPs will interact with their Indian parliamentary counterparts and it is facilitated by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT). Mir Jan Mohammad Khan Jamali, Deputy Chairman Senate and Faisal Karim Kundi, Deputy Speaker National Assembly of Pakistan, both will co-lead the Pakistan delegation. Senator SM Zafar of PML-Q, former federal law minister, from Pakistan and Yashwant Sinha, former union minister for external affairs and finance, India (Jharkhand, BJP), will co-chair Pakistan-India Parliamentarians Dialogue-II. Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza, who also extended her support to PILDAT through her suggestions and guidance to frame the theme of the dialogue, has nominated a senior parliamentary delegation. The leaders from major political parties of Pakistan will interact with a multiparty Indian parliamentary delegation in New Delhi on issues that impact the relations of both countries. The initiative spearheaded by parliamentarians from both countries is to engage with each other at the public representatives level so as to strengthen people-to-people contact for peace and stability in the region. The Pakistan delegation, other than the Deputy Presiding Officers of the Parliament includes Senators like Afrasiab Khattak (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ANP), Jehangir Bader (Punjab, PPP), Humayun Khan Mandokhel (Balochistan, Independent) and members from the National Assembly including Anusha Rehman, (Punjab, PML-N), Haider Abbas Rizvi, (Sindh, MQM), Humayun Saifullah Khan, (KP, PML-Likeminded), Nadeem Afzal Gondal, (Punjab, PPP), Qamar Zaman Kaira, (Punjab, PPP) and others. Iftikhar Ullah Babar, Special Secretary, Senate, and Moosa Raza Affendi, Additional Secretary Public Accounts Committee, National Assembly, will participate as observers in the dialogue representing the parliamentary secretariats. The Pakistan-India Parliamentarians Dialogue - I was facilitated by PILDAT in Islamabad, on January 6 to 7, 2011 in which a 7-member Indian Parliamentary delegation engaged with multiparty group of Pakistani MPs on topics including strengthening people to people contact, liberal visa regime, terrorism, Indian Held Kashmir, water, role of media, removing the trust deficit and other issues like role of women, trade, role of military and intelligence agencies and continuation of dialogue and exchange of programmes. A press release issued by PILDAT says that it undertook the initiative of the parliamentarian dialogues to enhance the role of parliamentary diplomacy in Pakistans relations in the region and around the world. Given regional relations, it is imperative, therefore, that parliamentarians from the region are engaged in parliamentary diplomacy that can be used to increase mutual understanding between the countries to improve scrutiny of government, represent their people in a better way and increase the democratic legitimacy of inter-governmental institutions.