PIPS Recognized As Global Centre Of Excellence In Parliamentary Research

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2023 ) :Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS) has been recognized as a centre of excellence in Parliamentary Research amongst global mapping of research services around the world by the United Kingdom (UK) Parliament.

According to the latest issue of the Parliamentarian, the journal of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the UK Parliamentary Office of Science of Technology undertook a year analysis to identify 181 potential parliamentary research mechanisms and compare them for the last five years' standards, services and performance of these institutes across 125 countries.

The PIPS has been recognized in the Top Tier of this global mapping of reputed worldwide institutions providing evidence-based policy synthesis, analysis and scrutiny as per the international standards to the parliamentarians.

Dr Vicky Wardat from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and Dr Mark Monaghan from the University of Loughborough University in England undertook a detailed comparative analysis of purpose, structure and performance in the last five years (2018-2023) for 181 institutes toshortlist top 41 parliamentary institutes worldwide placed in three tiers.

"The Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS), alongside network-oriented models such as the Commonwealth Parliamentary Research Services (CPRS) and UK-POST are placed among well-known models for linking individual Parliaments with academic research.

Research evidence has an important role to play in the work of parliaments as they scrutinize, debate and pass legislation. Some parliaments have well-known mechanisms for accessing and harnessing research from the academic community, but there are many others whose work is less well-known," the study noted.

The UK POST professors recognized that "PIPS has provided over 1,500 research-based articles and technical assistance to the individual Members of Parliament, committees and cross-party caucuses" within a short span of time with a smart team of only six in-house research experts whereas similar mechanisms in US, India, South Africa and Ghana have respectively 700, 450, 66 and 27 researchers and attorneys.

It is a proud moment for the National Parliament of Pakistan that PIPS has been rated in the Top Tier of global mapping of parliamentary mechanisms for accessing academic research in this worldwide rating. Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is presently the President of the board of Governors of PIPS.

The Institute has contributed 67 books covering all aspects of Parliamentary working and it publishes a monthly research digest that is the most-read Pakistani parliamentary publication worldwide. PIPS has also furnished 363 types of research for the MPs in this fiscal year till June 2023.

The global mapping initially identified total of 173 potential mechanisms using parliamentary engagement and research networks (e.g. the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment Network, International Parliamentary Engagement Network) and by searching the websites of all 192 parliaments listed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The professors gathered information from a sample of mechanisms which gave us a greater understanding of the range of work being undertaken. These insights enabled them to categorize mechanisms into three tiers.

These represented the level of confidence for standard as (1 = high, 3 = low) that the mechanism included a focus on academic research evidence and went beyond the provision of internally produced and/or unfiltered information and analysis.The map includes all mechanisms categorized as Tier 1 in which PIPS has been placed.

To access the global map of top parliamentary research services anyone can visit: http://ipen-network.org/global-mapping/," the article records.

The Institute established through an Act of Parliament in 2008 was founded by then Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Fehmida Mirza and Late Khan Ahmad Goraya as the founding President BoG and Executive Director, respectively.