Faisalabad: March 27, 2010. (Shazia George report for PCP) On 21st March 2010, Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) in collaboration with Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) organized a one-day training workshop titled “Community Education for Democracy and Human Rights” at Govt. Girls Elementary School, Chak # 462 Issanagri, Tehsil Samundri in Faisalabad District. The purpose of the training workshop was to acquaint trainees with democratic characteristics, norms & principles and importance of vote, to multiply political awareness among masses for their participation in the political process and to discuss hurdles in the way of real democracy in Pakistan. 27 Muslim and Christian trainees from different spheres of life participated in the training workshop while Mr. Naseem Anthony (Executive Secretary-AWAM), Ms. Shazia George (Coordinator-AWAM), Ms. Nazia Sardar and Mr. Zafar Iqbal were among the facilitators. The facilitators said, “The prime responsibility of the parliamentarians is the legislation, therefore they should acquaint themselves with the education about law, moreover responsibility of development in the urban and rural areas should be entirely shifted to local government rather than parliamentarians, so that legislators could better focus on the legislation ensuring equality, justice, freedom and development, for the prevalence of democracy in the country”. “It is pity that real democratic culture could not prevail in the history of Pakistan due to the indifference of rulers in democracy and unnecessary involvement of military in the political process”, they added. The facilitators termed trend of ‘restrictions on the females’ participation in political process, politics in the name of caste and religion, buying and selling of votes’ as undemocratic step and obstacles in the way of democracy in the true sense. They termed the participation of females in practical politics as need of the time for the promotion of democratic culture in Pakistan. The facilitators for the enforcement and prevalence of real democracy in Pakistan demanded that: participation of deprived groups should be ensured in the mainstream of the development; education about law for parliamentarians should be made compulsory; provisions in the constitution, laws and policies having discrimination on the basis of religion and sex, should be amended to comply with the standards and norms of human rights; the proposed Constitution Reforms Package must ensure respect for religious and cultural diversity of Pakistan as well as provincial autonomy and decentralization of power in the real sense to the smaller administrative units and the masses of Pakistan; freedom of media and press must be ensured to keep check on the efficiency of democratic system; appropriate measures and steps should be taken to deal with the inflation, food items and power crises to provide relief to the marginalized sections on urgent basis.