Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Key stakeholders in the arena of local election and governance came together on Saturday to discuss lessons learnt from previous general elections and its implications on the upcoming local ones.

The upcoming new elections will be conducted under a new law, the parliamentarians discussed key elements of the existing law and how can they cater for the need of the citizens.

Democracy Reporting International (DRI) organised a round table dialogue on lessons learned from general elections, the Election Act 2017 and its implementation gaps in which participants discussed the possibility of revising the new local government laws being debated on these days, including issues like delimitations, powers, women and minority vote. The round table attracted a large number of important stakeholders such as federal and provincial ministers, parliamentarians, public officials, representatives of academia and civil society at a local hotel. The aim was to open up a discussion on the challenges facing the upcoming elections in four different provincial settings. The existing and proposed laws of the local elections were debated in detail including identification of the gaps in its current implementation.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan talked about the key features of new legislations being proposed in KP and Punjab. This includes establishing and strengthening village councils for the rural areas and improving the model for urban areas by having city governments that are run by mayors. Bilal Rao who is part of the Prime Minister’s Local Government Task Force, said that the purpose is to reform governance through local bodies at the grassroots with allocation of appropriate funds and delegation of authority. Under the proposed legislations, different structures for urban and rural areas are being planned.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Member of Provincial Assembly Khawaja Izharul Hassan from Sindh, stressed that urban areas need to have metropolitan authorities for effective local governance. Karachi’s Local Government Director Farooq Siddiqui stated that efforts are underway in Sindh to strengthen implementation of the current local government system in Sindh.

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s MPA Nasrullah Barech from Balochistan emphasised the need for allocation of minimum 30 percent of all budgets to local governments. Balochistan Local Government Secretary Qambar Dashti said that due to the province’s unique demographic and geographic consideration, a five-tier local government system is the most suitable option but said that the new law was considering new Ideas, as well.

Local Government Special Secretary Mukhtar Ahmed Malik and Local Government Standing Committee former chairman Razzaq Dhillon talked about the local government system in Punjab. Mukhtar Ahmed Malik talked about the rural and urban divide in terms of needs and requirements of local governance. Razzaq Dhillon opined that it is pertinent to strengthen independent district councils for effective local governance in Punjab.

MMA’s MPA Inayatullah Khan from KP expressed his reservation on taking district level off from the proposed local government system by the PM’s Task Force. He proposed to reduce the number of local nazims and to improve coordination links between different tiers. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) MPA Ayesha Bano recommended that every tier of local government should be required to submit performance reports annually.

PTI’s MPA Ravi Kumar of KP talked about the importance of local government in protecting the rights of minorities in his constituency in KP. Reforms are needed to ensure effective local governance in the country. In addition, some other parliamentarians who talked about different aspects of local governance were Sardar Babak, Tufail Anjum, Fahim Khan, Malik Wajid, Asghar Khan Achakzai, Sidra Imran and Nabila Hakim. Along with parliamentarians, a number of experts including Musharraf Zaidi, Naveed Aziz, Tim Williams and Anwar Hussain talked about the technicalities of local governance in Pakistan.

The consensus was to carry on with the process of dialogue and engagement to make headway in realising democratic local governance across the country.

The DRI Country Representative Javed Ahmed Malik concluded the event highlighting the need for continuous participatory consultations to strengthen the process of local governance, with a particular focus on local elections, in order to improve service delivery for development and to advance the human rights agenda.

Published in Daily Times, November 25^th 2018.