News
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
Civil society presents charter of demands* Accountability mechanism for elected councils sought in LG bill
* A demand also surfaced that a minimum of 33 percent proportion of representation for women, 10 percent for peasants/labour and 5 percent for non-Muslim be allocated in the LG bill
By Arsalan Haider and Arslan Mughal
LAHORE: Civil society organisations on Tuesday mooted several demands for amendment into the Punjab Local Government Bill 2013, including a provision for grievance redressal management mechanism that may enable citizens to hold their elected councils accountable to them and pressed the provincial government to incorporate all such suggestions in the bill.
In different seminars and conferences, civil society lashed out at the drafted LG bill presented by Punjab government and raised serious concerns over government’s ignorance on some important issues.
Some of their demands include that LG should be considered ‘third tier’ of governance with a constitutional guarantees and safeguards against any unlawful abrogation in their affairs in a manner not prescribed in the law. There should be no rural-urban divide in the application of local government. The strength of union council should be not less than 18 members in addition to seats of mayor/deputy mayor.
They further demanded that there should be a minimum of 33 percent proportion of representations for women, 10 percent for peasants/labour and 5 percent for non-Muslim (with gender balance) through reservation of seats in all three tiers of local governments to be filled through party-based and constituency-based direct election in a joint electorate system.
They said the same principle must be ensured for all sub-committees, boards and commissions at all tiers.
LG should be given fiscal autonomy to run their affairs with the rights to collection of taxes, in accordance with provincial context. A balance of authority should be created whereby elected representatives,
Musalihati Anjumans, neighbourhood councils, citizen community boards and other sub-structures at UC, tehsil and district level must be set up through principles of parity, equality and gender-based participation.
An autonomous Local Government Commission (LGC) need to be established under the chairpersonship of chief minister or his/he representative/minister to look after LG affairs.
Allocations of development funds to elected councils and elected representatives should be made through transparent, fair, right-based and need-based process. A minimum of 30 percent of the district government budget should be allocated on women-specific development plans and schemes.
New local government legislation in all provinces should empower and charge the LG to develop and execute disaster risk reduction and disaster management plans under the technical guidance and supervision of Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
The new LG legislation in all provinces should make a provision for grievance redressal/complaint management mechanism enabling citizens to hold their elected councils accountable to them and to check discriminatory practices.
LG should be subject to accountability and transparency under the constitutional and legal framework of the province.
The civil society organisations working under, ‘AAWAZ Voice’ held a provincial conference titled “Devolution of Power: Punjab local government act 2013” in which Aurat Foundation (AF), South Asia Partnership-Pakistan (SAP-PK), Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), Sungi Development Foundation, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) were participated in the conference.
The SAP-PK Executive Director Tahseen Siddique, Mumtaz Mughal, Zakia Ashraf, Salman Abid of SPO, Aimal Khattak of Sangi Development, Ameer ul Azeem of Jamat-e-Islami, Faiza Malik of Pakistan People’s Party, Mehmood ur Rasheed of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, Waqas Akhtar of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Gurmeet Singh of Sikh Community and representatives of non government organisations were also present on the occasion.
Participants criticised the government for not including several important points in the LG bill. They also presented a charter of demands against government to add their demands in the Bill.
Separately, Bargad, a youth development organisation, said the LG bill had ignored promises made by the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif under the officially approved Punjab Youth Policy 2012 by Punjab government to allocate five percent quota for youth in the LG elections.
Executive Director of Bargad, Sabiha Shaheen, said political empowerment of youth as envisioned by Punjab youth policy 2012 seemed in doldrums since section 12 and 15 and the First Schedule in the Local Government Bill 2013 which deals with the composition and number of local government are silent on the quota for youth in the newly proposed bill.
She demanded that the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and youth Minister Rana Mashood Ahmad khan should immediate take notice of the situation and allocate five percent quota for youth in the coming local government elections as promised earlier.
“It is the right time that Government of Punjab adheres to what it has pledged to the youth of province as it has successfully implemented other youth development initiatives within the policy framework like Youth Internship Programme and Youth Help Line”, she added.
Meanwhile, PATTAN has also shown their dissatisfaction over the issue. Their representatives demanded to improve councillor-population ratio, increase in quota for women and disempowered social groups, removal of and creation of linkages with National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy.Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk