All parties’ conference: ‘Local governments represent true democracy’

Conference participants discuss challenges and opportunities of the local governments system.

LAHORE:

“It is better to have no local government elections than to have party-less elections,” Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Bakhtiar Kasuri said on Thursday.

He was speaking at an All Parties Conference (APC) on Transparency and Accountability in the Local Government System in the Punjab: Challenges and Opportunities organised by the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)



Kasuri said true democracy existed at the grassroots level and the local governments represented that.

He said the provincial government had no right to make restricting local institutions or carry out delimitation of constituencies for local elections.

Kasuri said it was wrong that the Lahore Development Authoirty (LDA), the Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (TEPA) and the Solid Waste Management (SWM) were under the provincial government rather than the city government.

Shahabud Din Sehar of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said the local governments law needed amendments. He said those elected to local councils were not allowed to propose a project above Rs1 million.

Ameerul Azeem of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) said, “We need a uniform local governments system across the country.”

Syed Aleem Shah of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said his party was not against local governments. He said the PML-N had requested the Supreme Court of Pakistan to allow a delay so that the elections could be held properly.



Ahmed Ali, a researcher at I-SAPS, said 29 per cent of the people questioned in a survey across the Punjab had said they had access to the government at the union council level.

He said 16 per cent said they had greater access at the federal level, 14 per cent opted for provincial level and two per cent said they had more access at the tehsil level.

Ali said 23 per cent said they had no access at all.

“73.8 per cent of the people questioned said they wanted a functional local governments system and 83 per cent said that they would participate in the elections,” he added.

Husain Naqi of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said the local governments lacked power as well as resources.

“The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz should enact a law that would set a bench mark for other provinces.”

He said if general elections could take place without census so could the local government elections.

He urged the government to ensure that local elections took place in the province in 2014.

“The census should be carried out in 2015,” he said.

Strengthening Participatory Organisation Regional Head Salman Abid talked about the importance of providing constitutional protection to the local governments bill.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2014.