Daily Times

LAHORE: Speakers at the concluding day of ‘Consultation on Punjab Local government Model’ on Monday urged the Punjab government to take on board all stakeholders before introducing new local government system in the province.

The two-day event was organised by Sangat Development Foundation (SDF) at a local hotel, which was attended by elected representatives, including union councils’ chairmen, vice chairman, women councilors, youth councilors, minority councilors, media, civil society, political parties, women chamber of commerce representatives, government officials and educationalist

In his inaugural address, SDF Executive Director Zahid Islam said that the government should consult all stakeholders before introducing the new local government system. “Unfortunately no concrete policy on local government has been introduced even after the lapse of 60 days,” he said.

He said that local government elections should be conducted on party-base. He highlighted that in previous government, core functions of the local bodies departments were outsourced to private companies that had made all the difference in the functioning of the local governance. “To introduce a new LG system, private companies should work under LG representatives,” he said, adding that it would take at least one year to introduce a new LG system so the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government should keep this in mind before introducing new LG system in Punjab.

It was shared that the culture of running the local government system on the administrative basis should be discouraged.

Former Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary Kanwar Dilshad stressed the need to follow good practices of the previous governments and urged the incumbent government to adopt the good practices from Indonesia model of local government and French model of bureaucracy for strengthening democracy in Pakistan.

Salman Abid, local government expert and analyst, said the role of federal government should be included as per the Article 140 and Article 32 of constitution. He said that the debate on introducing new LG system must come in media and “we should interact with federal and provincial departments to make new system for the betterment of the people”.

“The implementation on the 33 percent women representation was not included in last LG elections in 2015, so it must be ensured in the new LG system,” he added.

SDF Programme Director Sajid Ali said, “It is right time to negotiate with current government to strengthen local government.”

Asma Aamir, civil society representative, said that youth representation in the LG institutions should not be less than five percent and their functions should be specified. “We can adopt the good practices from Philippine model to engage the youth in local governance. Young people voted the PTI, so the ruling government must be concerned about youth.” She added that all the annual development schemes relevant to youth and women must not be approved without participation of women and youth.

Women member of Metropolitan Corporation Lahore Nasim Bano said that separate room might be allowed to women members in order to facilitate the women issues in metropolitan office and women should not be seen as dummy. Their powers and functions should be equally.

One suggestion from participant from Jhelum Yousaf Naz said elections for three tier of political systems, including federal, province and LG should be held on same time and for same tenure.

PTI lawmakers in Punjab Assembly, including Sadia Sohail Rana, Sunbal Malik, Shamsha Ali, Neelam Hayat, Khadija Farooqi, former ECP secretary Kanwar Dilshad, civil society representatives, including Zahid Islam, Salman Abid, Zafar Malik, Muhammad Tehseen, Anwar Hussain, Azam Malik, Ramzan Jatala, Sajid Ali, Asma Aamir, Col Tahir Kardar, Naseem Bano and others also spoke.

Published in Daily Times, October 30^th 2018.