PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. PHOTO: REUTERS
The country's premier was speaking at the concluding session of a conference titled "Think Globally, Act Locally-SDG Implementation through Local Governments,".
The event was organised by the United Cities and Local Government Asia Pacific Region (UCLG) in cooperation with the Local Council Associations of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (ASPAC) on the role of local governments in achieving the goals.
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PM Abbasi underscored the need to maintain a balance between resources and priorities of the parliamentarians and the locally elected representatives.
"The intent and purpose of the public representation in the parliament or at the local government level is to achieve the development targets,"he added.
He said the elected representatives were expected to deliver in their duties to develop projects in health, education, sanitation, infrastructure as they were inseperable.
He lauded the local government system saying that it served as an incubator to groom future politicians.
"Pakistan has experience with different systems of governance with the local governance being one of them," he added.
"All the provinces had their separate local government systems functional under their respective legislations, whereas the country had a parliamentary system at the center, which was an indication of the success of democratic system, he added.
The prime minister said that politics were also based upon local issues and referred to a recent survey in which 42 per cent views attributed to the development projects as one of the main factors to attract voters.
The prime minister said the intent and objective of these systems were to achieve development at the local level which would yield results with the passage of time.
He also observed that the system could create some pockets of excellence and also few areas of neglect, however, it could be termed as personalised system.
The prime minister said such priorities for development at the local level also gave way to conflict among the parliamentarians at the national and provincial levels, and the local government representatives.
He stressed upon maintaining a balance between local requirements and the political ones.
"The system would deliver with political dividends reaching the local level if all balances were created", he added.
The heads of local governments reiterated the dire need to bridge the gap between the nation's key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators, as well as, global standards via constructive dialogue and cooperation with the federal government.
''We'll accelerate this journey and reach the destination by joining hands in our role as public representatives with our duties to our voters as enshrined in the SDGs,'' said a joint statement issued by authorities of different cities nationwide.
This was said on the second day of international conference titled ''Think Globally, Act Locally – SDGs' Implementation through Local Governments."
The three-day conference from April 10-12 was organised by the United Cities and Local Government Asia Pacific in collaboration with the Local Councils Associations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab Provinces of Pakistan.
The conference is supported by German Development Cooperation (GDC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Meanwhile, a joint statement was also issued at the end of the session.
According to which, ''The path to a true people-centred, environment friendly and participatory national life lies through the local governments. The SDGs are milestones on this journey to national progress,'' said the joint statement. '
The statement was read out by Chairman District Council Sheikhupura and Member Local Councils Associations of Punjab (LCAP) Rana Ahmad Atteeq Anwer.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Sartaj Aziz said that to achieve the SDGs would only be possible with the mutual cooperation between federal, provincial and local governments, as well as, the community organisations.
A parliamentary committee has been formed to implement the goals, he said.
''The Federal government is striving to achieve all the 17 SDGs some of which would be implemented soon,'' the deputy chairman said adding that approval to achieve national goals was acquired by National Economic Council two months back.
''Mutual cooperation is more important than money with provinces setting up designated units for SDGs' implementation. Achieving economic goals is part of federal government's SDGs' implementation initiatives.''
President Local Councils Associations of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (LCAKP) and District Nazim Mardan Himayatullah Mayar said the local governments are still in their infancy and therefore can learn significantly from international experiences. ''Together we can carve out a strategy for us to accelerate SDGs' implementation at local level. We hope that by the end of this conference, we will collectively be able to contribute effectively to 2030 Agenda and forge partnerships and cooperation to achieve our future vision.'' APP
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