Allyson's Adventure in Pakistan

Pennsylvania has two representatives on the House Democracy Assistance Commission, a bipartisan congressional taskforce that works to promote and support the development of democratic governments around the world. Democrat Allyson Schwartz (D-13) and Republican Bill Shuster (R-09). Schwartz, along with Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Wayne Gilchrist (R-MD) recently visited Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Schwartz recently spoke about the experience. Here are my rough notes of her description. It is by no means complete or an actual transcript. There was more in-depth descriptions of international politics and internal politics in those countries but I do not know the situation well enough to follow the names and details. The paragraph below is only what I could catch.

The HDAC reaches out to emergency emerging democracies, peer to peer to help build strong independent legislative branches of governments; this is an important part of democracy and helps strengthen democratic institutions. They spend a lot of time on things like committee structure, staff, access to information, and the library. She has gone to Moldova, the Ukraine, and Georgia on previous trips. This time the partner country is Afghanistan, though the group visited Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia as well, spending two days each in Pakistan and Afghanistan. While the trip didn’t have a military focus, in Afghanistan the group met with some troops. In Pakistan they met with the speaker of the house as well as individual committees such as defense and transportation infrastructure, and talked about parliamentary structure. They also spent time with embassy personnel. USAID paid for renovations for the parliamentary building, space for offices and staff, and the library. The Speaker and parliament were keenly interested in a stronger role and more budget oversight. They are working to set national priorities and goals and measure outcomes. Schwartz said they were grateful for US dollars spent in their country and they want to fight the Taliban and Al-Quada. They are committed to moving forward away from a military dictatorship. The US group spoke with them about treaties with tribal leadership and holding those leaders accountable for insurgents in their area. These trips are important; they take what we say seriously.