Power to the people: PTI to form village level councils
Addressing a seminar on “Transferring Power to the People”, PTI chairman Imran Khan announced that his party will make councils at the village level in order to empower them.
He added that billions of rupees were spent on making bypasses and flyovers in Lahore only which could have been used to develop hundreds of villages.
The PTI press release said the party, in its five years in power, will spend approximately Rs10 million on every village and the local councils will spend the money at their discretion. It added that all union councils will receive Rs125 billion every year.
The seminar was attended by PTI vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Secretary General Arif Alvi, Secretary Information Shafqat Mehmood and Deputy Secretary Information Ahmad Jawwad.
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Power belongs to people and it should be given to them directly through local system where locals have enough power over their resources to address their issues.
@shah g: my dear u tell us the alternative plz... its so easy to pass a comment .... this man has sacrificed everything for this selfish nation.... its sad that people still dont listen to him...
This is really nice plan & every single citizen will get benefit from it. GO IK. we are with you.
Kaptaan leading from the front
Such a flawed strategy from Imran Khan that every village will be given 10 million. These strategies sprung up when City dwellers try to make decisions about the majority of the people living in villages. It is flawed because A village population can never be uniform and some of the villages have a population of less than 100 and some have a population in thousands. Equal distribution of wealth among villages is not possible because every village have a different population count. This will lead to unequal wealth distribution as villages of smaller population will get more funding. I will suggest Imran Khan to visit some villages and then try to make some strategy about them. City dwellers can never understand what is meant to be a villager like me and what are our problems.
devolution of power and direct allocations of funds to the local level, is the only way of eliminating the corruption. My vote of PTI
To all the critics ...... at least PTI is giving some food for thought. Energy Policy, governance policy etc. these are very positive development. It may not be the perfect one but at least PTI has started a constructive debate on the plan and vision for a successful Pakistan. should be appreciated !
@TightChuddhi: So if a system works then it shouldnt be duplicated. are you on something?
I'm pretty sure people who are making comments about it being a copy of something else are referencing the furry little man from JUI-F and his issue with the domestic violence bill. Not actually caring if it's similar.
PTI has solution for every matter
Great! Just took a look at the slides on their official FB page, and this devolution process will indeed erase corruption at the grass-roots level. The next seminar will be about the economic crisis If I'm not wrong, and I do find funny that peoples reduce Imran Khan to a slogan like tabdeelis or Tsunamis when his party actually have the intellectual vision to grasp Pakistan's problems (see Insaf Research Wing's reports) unlike some parties. #pti.troll
@Tom: Dear Sir, villagers will elect their chairman and they will be able to grab him by the neck if he does any corruption, and this is giving the money to the grass root level, now are you suggesting that development fund should be given to every single individual :). it's a great plan and only Imran khan can implement it because he is famous for doing the impossibles :)
@Dude: Pakistan's current revenue is about 2000 Bn (based on 9% tax to GDP ratio). We can easily push it up to about 4000 Bn (18% avg. in emerging markets). After adjusting for 1600 Bn in defense and debt servicing, we will have reasonable amount of funds left for development expenditure, so we should be able to take out 125 Bn / year relatively easily (provided above mentioned assumptions are met).
@gp65: Good idea. I think as Zoaib mentioned as well, they have tried to cover it to certain extent in their solution through SOPs, transaction logging, third party audits, and oversight groups. Furthermore, I think, as the new processes and structures are implemented, risk management and controls will evolve accordingly.
@shah g: he is talking about new system man - are you sleeping? wake up!
@Umar: What do you mean by stealing? He already said this was the system here before British rule. And if some where this is already implemented we can copy it for the betterment of people. It is not a product like an iPhone that government cannot copy.
We can make modifications according to our own requirement. So better let him implement this.
@shah g: feel very sorry for people like you, you guys really deserve Zardari.
@Ch Allah Daad: If that's the logic you use, then don't forget that Karachi is the economic hub of Pakistan and it generates 60-70% of country's revenue, so I think it should be Karachiites who shoukd decide who comes in power and who doesn't right? And should Karachi also stop giving its money to Federal which eventually goes to the whole country including Punjab? Shame on you for even thinking like that! Your thinking has been rejected by Lahoris time and time again specially on 30th October of last year and when BB was given a huge welcome when she came back from exile during Zia's regime!
@TightChuddhi:
"Imran Khan is stealing the idea from India’s Panchayati Raj system. Shame on him"
And India stole idea of Parliamentary Democracy from the British?? Come on dude. Loosen your Chuddi, that will help you think straight. Parliamentary democracy and local government model is great, regardless where it comes from. Better than cheesy copies of Hollywood movies, and infringement of intellectual property rights. . That is real shame.
Where the money is going to come from?? Pakistan does not collect this amount in Taxes?? Everyone talking about how much they are going to spend but no one is telling us that where this money is going to come from.
@gp65: If you check properly Imran Khans plan about corruption then you will understand. He talks to deal with top level corruption with in 90 days and then in their plan is to deal and address with lower level corruption to grass root level.
@Tom: This is what Imran Khan is taking about that Village level is the actully grass root level. Tom what other grass root level in your mind. Imran khan plan is where they would be directly providing money directly to grass root level instead of systematically going to differnt levels and then it reach less than 10% to grass root level.
Imran Khan is vissionary leader and he knows problems of Pakistan.
@ Ch Allah daad
nobody is opposing development in lahore. Open your mind and understand what imran khan is trying to say. Imran Khan is talking about a greater vision
@Allah dad : What makes u think ure speaking on behalf of the Lahoris?
Anything built in lahore belongs to all Pakistanis? .. please break it down for me .. I live in chichu kee mallian and and I dont even have a decent health unit. How does a bypass in Lahore help me? It could, had the millions spent on the bypass rather been invested in my village for a hospital.
There are other cities beside Lahore in Punjab. Nobody is saying to not develop Lahore, there are other places and people in dire need of money that is spent on fly overs, express ways and then beautification of the city. Yor are more than welcome to boycott him, but there are many more Lahoris who will support him.
@faraz: Lol! Seems I misunderstood you! My apologies. I've taken a look at the slides. ET is misreporting. The 125 billion rupees figure they are Quoting is just the total annual development budget that will be given to the local government.
this is the true facts that until presnt governament does not sinceer to solve the problems of the people becase they afraid of local leaders .
Sounds like a great idea for any country other than Pakistan. Distributing funds to corrupt people so they can spend at their discretion. Let me think what happens when people spend money at their discretion which is not theirs, hmm, corruption, nepotism and waste. PLEASE DO NOT FORGET, CORRUPT PEOPLE BRING CORRUPT PEOPLE IN POWER. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN TRUE AND WILL ALWAYS BE.....
@Ch Allah Daad: Speak for yourself not for the whole of Lahore
@CH. ALLAH Daad, I know you are writhing in agony as your leader Nawaz never ever thought of doing what IK has envisioned, beacuse, PML N's entire political fiefdom rests on centralization, thats why they dont have the courage nor the willingness to hold local bodies election. Pity on PML.N.
Lahore is Heart of Pakistan. Anything built in Lahore belongs to all Pakistanis. Millions of people from all over Pakistan come to Lahore every month and they use these bridges, roads and overheads. Anything built anywhere in Pakistan is ours. Developing villages is a good idea but opposing development in Lahore or in any other city is foolish. Last time Imran boycotted elections, this time Lahoris will boycott him. Sorry, no seat for Imran from Lahore.
@gp65 I believe there is mention of controls of the village funds (e.g. audits and such) on slide 17 of the presentation linked above in my comment. I must say it is quite a comprehensive plan, but of course there is room for improvement in everything. Instead of being cynical, people should take part in PTI policy making so that we can make this better...
@Euler_89: "6000 Union Councils times Rs 10 million per Union Council equals Rs 60 billion. Seems reasonable enough to me…"
Actually according to the article each village gets 10 milion and each union council gets 125 billion. I am guessing that there was a typo and the intention was 125 million for each union council.
@Falcon: "Good work on devolution of power and resources. It would be good to see PTI revenue generation plan as well since these revenue allocation assumptions have some targeted tax-to-GDP ratio and revenue expectation incorporated into it."
Good point. Would like to add that in addition to revenue generation plans, he should also publish the controls that will be implemented that this money is not used up in corruption. Imran's plan for reducing corruption was limited to high level corruption in government procurement by choosing honest people in key roles. But that approach cannot address village level corruption.
Imran is very clear on devolution of power unlike CM Punjab who want that all power concentrated to him.
PTI has made more thn 60 thousands small units in urban and rural areas and i think this is brilliant idea,,every one in the unit will know how much money they got and how much the local authorities utilized ..
Imran Khan is stealing the idea from India's Panchayati Raj system. Shame on him
When it comes to PTI people who have been voting for known looters frauds and gunda gards start talking about accountability, financial plans, budget plans and what not. I just wish that they dissect PPP and PML-N policies with the same high standards which they use while analysing PTI policies
This is really nice plan & every single citizen will get benefit from it. GO IK. we are with you.
Thhis is what we call " real devolution of power " .This is how the real and best punchyet or local governence will evolve eventually ...We have to work for the success of PTI and Imran Khan
@faraz: Bahi it does not need any rocket science to calculate these simple figures ..... He is serious but i think you should seriously check your calculator :)
@shah g: oh come on now!! What same system are you talking about!! Stop over exagerrating things!
@Euler_89, Shoaib
According to the slides on the official Facebook website, each village will get 20 lakh every year, that’s 1 Crore per village in 5 years duration. There are 52376 villages. This means 523.76 billion in 5 years, or 105 billion every year.
Total Union councils are 6028. I think 125 billion for union councils is separate from the 105 billion for villages.
Local system of governance bring its own check and balance because these local leaders are answerable to people with whom they have social connections (their neighbors and villagers). You don't rely on people who sit in federal or provincial capitals with less connections to locals. This is vision of today and tomorrow as all modern societies are exercising this system. Good job PTI.
@faraz misunderstood ur calculations....i apologize fr my comments regarding your maths :p
That will be true democracy... Not like one we are experiencing by Fed. Govt and by provincial govts. particularly by Punjab Govt. (being a resident of Punjab)... who are holding power in the hand of one chief minister... They are postponing local bodies elections for years...
They do not want to delegate their power....
Unlike them, PTI has clear agenda... Delegate power and empower the people....
VOTE FOR PTI.....
Those who oppose Imran are a very strange breed of people. They keep a pacifier in their mouths when PPP and PMLN loot all the money and destroy the country, but when they see someone trying to do good, they immediately have criticism ready. Imran does not lie for the sake of power folks. So the assumption should be that all that you guys can fathom is already being discussed in his party and they have the plan. Just stop crying about it and support someone worth supporting for once. Even if he fails, he is NOT more dangerous than Zardari! Unlike Zardari, Khan's circle of people are exceptionally successful people in all walks of life including business and economics. He has access to best of minds and he will bring the best plans forward. Just give him time to do the things his way. Our country depends on this one now.
A well-researched and revolutionary plan for grassroots empowerment of the people! Well done PTI, this is another trend in Pakistani politics and will re-orient the debate towards the welfare of the people. I would advise readers to go through the slides in this link to really gauge the extent of thought that must have got into coming up with this comprehensive plan.
https://insafproforum.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/ptis-rural-governance-vision-empowering-the-community/
@faraz u need to retake your maths course...if ur union councils numbers r rite (6000 or 60,000?) 6000x10million=60,000million=60billion(if its 60,000 UC then 600billion)
and read the slides...it says: 2 million per annum fr every village...which is 10 million in a 5 year tenure of PTI's government 625billion in 5 years.....
Oh, 125 billion is for all union councils :p
What do you suggest or is it criticisam for te sake of it? @shah g:
Are you guys serious? There are over 6000 union councils; this means a budgetary allocation of 750,000 billion rupees. While Pakistan’s total budget is 3500 billion rupees!
@ shah g:
This system will bring a revolution in Pakistan if it is ever implemented. It will help cleanse the parliament- which is primarily a policy formulation body- from constituency politicians.
I am willing to bet my inheritance that no other party (except MQM) will ever support such a local government system because It will destroy their power base.
Finally someone is talking sense in Pakistani politics. Your narrow mindedness is astonishing.
That's true democracy. Bravo Imran Khan and PTI !!
PTI’s Rural Governance Vision (SLIDES)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150671820499527.392997.151626539526&type=3
This is what Imran Khan calls "Tsunami". Its not Tsunami against the people; its Tsunami against the corrupt and inefficient system. More power to you Kaptaan & PTI. Link for the news on PTI Official Website: PTI presents 2nd policy seminar; New community empowerment program unveiled (Urdu)
PTI policy in black and white! Yet people will ask where is PTI manifesto?
Good work on devolution of power and resources. It would be good to see PTI revenue generation plan as well since these revenue allocation assumptions have some targeted tax-to-GDP ratio and revenue expectation incorporated into it.
I like this idea, but the real question is will this money ever make it to the grass root level? I mean theres so much corruption, which in fact is the real problem thats preventing pakistan from growing. Lets face it Mr. Imran Khan you will have to implement very strict methods of checks and balanced and make sure that the money gets to the poor people.
good but most of them will be corrupts and thugs
this is the best a government ca do for its people: transfer power to them.
giving people false hopes from the same system.... he is more dangerous then even zardari