June 28, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 27,1424

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BHURBAN, June 27: Devolution plan has yet to deliver the desired results due to lack of political will and awareness of the Local Government Ordinance 2000 among the stakeholders.

This was the gist of a three-day forum on “International Relations and Improved Service Delivery in Pakistan” organized by the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) in collaboration with the World Bank (WB) at a local hotel on Friday.

Country Director World Bank, John Wall, Country Director ADB, Marshuk Ali Shah, Onder Yucer, UNDP, and a large number of experts also attended the forum. The speakers highlighted various ills of the society creating hurdles in the smooth implementation of the devolution plan.

NRB Chairman Daniyal Aziz said distribution of funds and postings/transfers in district governments had become a bone of contention between the provincial governments and the district Nazims. He said the Rules of Business of Districts Governments did not empower the members of provincial assemblies to interfere in the business of district governments, specially in distribution of funds and postings/transfers.

He said there was a possibility to induct members of parliament into the Working Development Committees (WDCs) of district governments, however, all designs to promote favouritism and Parchi system in the country would be stopped.

Mr Aziz said devolution of power was a major shift in the past political system and was designed to empower the common man. He said the budgetary process in the devolution plan was being improved and all bottlenecks would be removed within due course of time.

The NRB chairman criticized the vested interests for opposing the Local Government System. “Only a particular group of politicians is opposing this system, as they feel it has curtailed their powers,” he said.

He said only those who promoted the culture of likes and dislikes were feeling uneasy with the system. “We are also trying to find out as to who is creating differences between the two tiers and will take them to task,” he said. He said devolution of power was aimed at uprooting the decades-long colonial and bureaucratic system that was creating a conflict between ownership and accountability.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Syed Naveed Qamar stressed the need for establishment of parliamentary committees to maintain transparency and monitor the working of the district government system.

He said with all powers resting with the district Nazim, powers had not been transferred to the grass-roots in letter and spirit. Mr Qamar said the district Nazims had been made more powerful than the parliamentarians and this confronting situation would keep emerging again and again.

Malik Amin Aslam, an MNA from Attock, pointed out various shortcomings of the new system and said still there were a number of unmet challenges, as the powers transferred from federal to provincial and from there to the local level had stalled at the district Nazim.