Civil Society Seminar: ‘Time for advocacy is October, not June’
Civil society needs to start lobbying the government for budgetary proposals while the budget is being drawn up.
LAHORE:
Civil society needs to start lobbying the government for budgetary proposals between October and March while the budget is being drawn up rather than wait till June, learned participants in a seminar at the Ambassador Hotel on Wednesday.
“The right time for advocacy and pressuring the government is from October to March,” said Dr Imdad Hussain, a professor at FC College. “But unfortunately civil society does not get a chance to go through the pre-budget documentation due to the confidentiality policy of government departments.”
He said that parliamentarians also knew little because they were given the 2,000-page budget and technical documents a day before the budget announcement. “It is almost impossible for the parliamentarians to analyse the budget statements in so short a time period,” he said.
Dr Hussain noted that under the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, people had a right to know the government’s budget policy. The event, titled ‘Development budget advocacy challenges for civil society’, was arranged by Punjab Lok Sujag, the South Asia Partnership-Pakistan and Church World Services.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2011.
Civil society needs to start lobbying the government for budgetary proposals between October and March while the budget is being drawn up rather than wait till June, learned participants in a seminar at the Ambassador Hotel on Wednesday.
“The right time for advocacy and pressuring the government is from October to March,” said Dr Imdad Hussain, a professor at FC College. “But unfortunately civil society does not get a chance to go through the pre-budget documentation due to the confidentiality policy of government departments.”
He said that parliamentarians also knew little because they were given the 2,000-page budget and technical documents a day before the budget announcement. “It is almost impossible for the parliamentarians to analyse the budget statements in so short a time period,” he said.
Dr Hussain noted that under the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, people had a right to know the government’s budget policy. The event, titled ‘Development budget advocacy challenges for civil society’, was arranged by Punjab Lok Sujag, the South Asia Partnership-Pakistan and Church World Services.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2011.