What is CPA Conference?

Pakistan is to host the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) conference from September 30 to October 8. However, it is running into trouble over the non-inclusion of the Jammu and Kashmir Speaker. Consequently, a furious India has threatened to boycott the important conclave.

Although, Islamabad did not invite the valley State during the 3rd Asia and India Regional CPA Conference in 2007, the Jammu and Kashmir branch was invited by the Pakistan CPA. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) currently has 181 branches and is divided into nine regions - Africa; Asia; Australia; British Islands and Mediterranean (BIM); Canada; Caribbean, Americas and Atlantic (CAA); India; Pacific; and South-East Asia. The CPA Secretariat is based in London.

The CPA identifies benchmarks of good governance and to implement the enduring values of the Commonwealth. The CPA has been the voice of parliamentary democracy across the Commonwealth for more than nine decades. Since the turn of the new millennium, however, it has also been speaking out for the right of Parliaments and Parliamentarians to play a more active role in the development of their countries.

No longer satisfied with simply approving and scrutinizing government development plans, the Association’s 185 Parliaments and Legislatures and their 17,000 Members now want to play an active role in formulating those plans. By meeting in a Commonwealth setting, Parliamentarians appreciate the value of the wider Commonwealth of Nations.

The CPA recognizes that effective policies and practices can come from the small, the inexperienced and the underdeveloped as well as from the large, the sophisticated and the rich. Commonwealth Heads of Government have recognised the Parliaments and Legislatures of the Commonwealth as essential elements in the exercise of democratic governance.