ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Mohammad Sadiq Sanjrani has announced that he will contest the upcoming election for the office of president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

The IPU is a global organisation of national parliaments working with a mission to empower parliaments and parliamentarians to promote peace, democracy and sustainable development.

The election for IPU president will be held in December this year.

It is for the first time that Pakistan will be contesting for the position.

India and Bangladesh are among the countries having held the IPU presidency in the past.

The longest-serving president in the IPU was former Belgian prime minister Henri Carton de Wiart, whose 13-year term encompassed the whole of the World War II years. Two Britons — Lord Weardale and Viscount Stansgate — also served the organisation for 10 years.

Election is scheduled to be held in December

Many of the IPU’s early presidents were Europeans active in the peace movement. As more and more parliaments around the world are joining the organisation, its choice of presidents has begun to reflect its global reach.

More recently they have included leading politicians from Africa, South America and Asia.

The first non-European to hold the post of IPU president was Brazilian politician Ranieri Mazzilli, who served the organisation from 1962 to 1967.

Najma Heptulla of India was the first woman to become the IPU president in 1999 for a three-year term.

Saber Chowdhury of Bangladesh, a former prisoner of conscience who was subjected to detention and custodial violence, also served as the IPU president from 2014 to 2017.

The IPU is now inching closer to universal membership, with 179 member parliaments of 193 countries in the world — from huge nations like China, India and Indonesia, to tiny states of Cabo Verde, San Marino and Palau.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2020