Islamabad; February 20, 2013: Organised by the CPA UK and the Women's Parliamentary Caucus Islamabad, in collaboration with the National Assembly of Pakistan, the three day visit of a delegation of Women Parliamentarians from UK concluded on the 20th February, 2013. The delegation was led by the Rt. Hon. Baroness D'Souza CMG [Lord Speaker] with a seven member distinguished parliamentarians from the UK. The Pakistan side was led by Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali and Dr. Atiya Inayatullah.

The visit was a follow up of the First Meeting of women parliamentarians from UK, Pakistan and Afghanistan on the subject of promoting women's political empowerment that was held in London in the June of 2012. Given the success of the first meeting, this second meeting in Islamabad was organised on the theme of Women's Economic Empowerment, that provided the women parliamentarians of the two countries an opportunity to freely discuss and share experiences and to take a closer look at the of different aspects of women's economic participation and empowerment with particular focus on the issues and challenges faced by women in Pakistan.

The meeting allowed the women parliamentarians to discuss issues, opportunities, challenges and finally policy making in our respective countries in anticipation that it would enable the law makers to better respond to the immediate and urgent needs concerning women’s economic needs, capacities and participation in their countries.

At the conclusion of the three days discussions the distinguished members of the UK Parliament highly commended the work and potential of the Women's Parliamentary Caucus whose members had played a vibrant and an extremely proactive role in advancing women's empowerment agenda through legislation, oversight and demonstrating their true democratic representativeness. The delegates showed keen interest in working with the WPC and reaffirmed their desire to work together towards building upon the created linkages between the two countries at national as well as at the provincial levels. The delegates on both sides committed to create further linkages and build alliances between key relevant forums and institutions to support and strengthen closer ties between women parliamentarians and their work in advancing gender and women's empowerment agenda both at the national as well as at the provincial levels.