Advocacy & Lobbying Meetings

1 February 2022 with Secretary LG Punjab

On Tuesday 1st February 2022, a meeting with Secretary Local Government Punjab was held at Civil Secretariat Lahore. The team leader explained the objectives of the interaction, he said that it is worldwide recognized that around sixty per cent of the SDGs are the responsibility of the local governments, and if local governments and leaders are not empowered then it shall be a nightmare to achieve the agenda 2030. Therefore, it is crucial to give more powers to local government elected representatives, and immediately hold elections in the Province. He said that the provincial government is framing the new laws for local governments, therefore, there is a cushion to devolve maximum at the local level. He further said that the local government is an integral part of the modern democratic system in many federal and unitary states. Being closer to the people with better knowledge of local issues and this system helps in finding sustainable solutions for social, economic and material needs and decentralization through local governance minimizes delays in public service delivery & equitable distribution of resources gives a sense of ownership to local people, mobilizes far more resources for development. The Secretary of Local Government said that the Punjab government in line with the vision of the Prime Minister, the Local Government Act has been promulgated through ordinance, however, before presenting to the Assembly, the opposition and stakeholders are invited to table their suggestions to make it more useful and workable.
Furthermore, we discussed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the local government department-ministry and ADLG member Association “LCA Punjab”. The Secretary ensure that this is a good idea as the Association is in a better position to create awareness on a larger scale and also can offer networking to learn from each other’s experiences.

Detail of participants, speakers, chief guest, and Key bullet points of meeting/ event

Participants:

• Mr. Anwar Hussain (CEO ADLG)
• Ms. Zaib un Nisa, Coordinator ADLG
• Mr. Zahid Iqbal (Chairman LCA Punjab)
• Dr. Naeem Rauf ( Secretary LG &CD)

Discussion Points:

• Discussion on the structure of local government and the role of local government to achieve SDGs.
• Discussion for empowering local governments.
• Discussion for the signing of MOU.
• Discussion on the role of local government to achieve SDGs.

Way Forward/Follow up Actions:

• To engage LG leaders to generate resourceful recommendations for sustainable and empowered LGs.
• MoU will help to work in collaboration.

Agreed actions during activity, person responsible, timeline if any,

• Agreed to support the view of empowered local governments.
• Agreed to increase networking among relevant influential stakeholders for uniform and strong LGs.

6 January 2022 with PPP Chairman

Pursuant to the previous meetings, we hold a meeting with Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari along with senior party members at Bilawal House Bahria town on 6th January 2022, Mr. Anwar Hussain explained the objectives of the meeting, the overall agenda of the meeting was to underpin the challenges to local governments across Pakistan and had a discussion on amendments in Article 140-A aligned with recent orders of the supreme court of Pakistan and spoke in detail about the importance of local government. He said that People’s participation can only be possible with the establishment and strengthening of local governments. The Chairman had given examples of how their government is working on new laws for local governments, election preparation and decentralization. He agreed with the general point of view of the participants and agreed that there was a dire need to introduce some amendments in the Constitution to ensure the continuity and sustainability of local governments He made commitments to take necessary steps to make amendments in near future.
While discussing the amendments situation, the Chairman reiterated the vision of the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr Imran Khan towards local democracy and said it was a pity that the government totally failed to fulfil their obligations as they did not see any proposals regarding empowering local governments neither in provincial nor in the national assembly. He was also in favour of self-governing and independent local governments. He said the Constitution of Pakistan does not spell out the details about the functions and framework of local government, according to the article 140-A each Province shall establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial powers and responsibility to the elected representatives of the local governments but the current laws neither devolving responsibility nor authority to elected representatives of local governments as is envisaged by the Constitution. He assured that the Pakistan people’s party would take up this case at all levels from provinces to the national assembly.

Participants

• Mr. Bilawal Bhuttoo Zardari, Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party
• Mr. Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Central Punjab President PPP.
• Mr. Anwar Hussain (CEO ADLG)
• Ms. Zaib un Nisa, Coordinator ADLG.

Discussion Points

• Discussion on the uniform and sustainable local governments for the achievement of SDGs.
• Way forward/ follow up actions:
• After detail discussion agreed on proposed amendments.
• Agreed actions during activity, Person responsible, timeline if any,
• Agreed upon sustainable local governments in Pakistan.
• Agreed to formulate enabling environment between political parties for debate and discussion on local governments.

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