LCD connection

HI All,

I have a question regarding LCD connection which show in below picture.
**broken link removed**
The picture show a simple LCD connection and a small circuit on the right hand site. The small circuit is connected to LCD- which is pin16 of the LCD and pin38 of a PIC. The part i don't understand is what is the purpose of the circuit and why it need to connect to the pin16 of the LCD?

Thanks for the reply.

It's simply for switching the backlight on and off under program control.

That's for the LED backlight. It should be driven through a transistor if it requires more than 20mA.