• November 14, 2011
• Training and Capacity Building
• Web Desk

Date: January 22-26, 2007
Location: Murree

The team: Workshop Participants & Speakers. Location: Foothills of Murree

It is hoped that the leadership emerging through this system would not only play an effective role to redress problems faced by people, but also enhance their own capabilities to contest for polls of national and provincial assemblies as well as the Senate.

In the local government system, implemented on August 14, 2000, the civil administration has been brought under control of the elected local governments. Moreover, elected representatives have been given powers in fields of municipal administration, planning, and development schemes. However, labour, peasants, minority representatives and women were not playing a proactive role in this system. The role of media coverage of local government is also weak.

It is necessary that various tools of socioeconomic change in this system like the Citizen Community Boards (CCBs), Musalihati Anumjans (arbitration councils), Public Safety Commissions and Village/ Muhalla Communities should be highlighted on one hand, and on the other elected representatives at all levels be provided with proper training for their capacity building.

Keeping in view these objectives, Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) arranged a five-day training workshop on Media and Democracy with focus on Covering Local governments at famed hill station Murree from January 22-26, 2007.

Journalists and female councillors from various parts of the country and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) participated in the workshop.

In his opening remarks PPF General Secretary Mr. Owais Aslam Ali said the three main objectives for arranging this workshop were to provide detailed information to journalists about functioning of local governments, to discuss role of CCBs and their projects highlighting their pros and cons, and to train journalists on effective monitoring of local governments, besides their capacity building in feature-writing.

After the inaugural session, formal training session began with lectures by the expert of local governments Mr. Zahid Islam. He said that after the creation of Pakistan, the nation spent some 25 years without the national and provincial assemblies, but the local government system remained there in one way or the other. He said that for some time powers to run local governments were given to government functionaries like assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners. He said that for a brief period ruling parties made their favourites administrators of local governments; however, the doors of local governments remained open.

He said that it was dire need that administration of local governments is given to local population and people belonging to all classes and religions have their due representation in them. He said that the elected representatives of councils should be given powers to generate and spend local resources.

He accused political parties and institutes of ignoring local governments, saying no book or literature on local governments was available in whole country. He said that though the local governments were a basic element of Civics, but no political party of Pakistan complied literature on them, while these political parties actively participated local government polls through groups backed by them.

Mr. Islam said that the local government system had many plus points, but due to ineffective governance it was losing its charm.

He said the local government system has following merits:
– It is a unified system for whole country.
– The number of stakeholders is large.
– The bureaucracy is made subordinate to the elected representatives.
– This system is being implemented at district, Tehsil and union council level, while complete powers are given to district Nazims at district level.
– It is aimed at ensuring maximum participation of all classes. Some 80,000 people are elected for 6022 union councils, besides those elected for Tehsil and district councils.

Mr. Islam said the local government system has following demerits:
– The district and Tehsil Nazims are not members of their councils and hence not accountable to them.
– On paper Union councils are given 16 functions, but in practice their functions are a few.
– The powers of local governments on paper seem good, but their implementation is dismal.
– More powers are vested with district and Tehsil Nazims, besides the district Nazim enjoys powers to use special grant of President, while these powers should have been vested with councils.

Regarding defects in the financial system of local governments, Mr. Islam said that the major defect of this system was that old Chungi/ Octopi system was replaced by the General Sales Tax (GST), which was an anti-people decision, as the Chungi/ Octroi was recovered from traders only, but the GST is recovered from every citizen.

He said that in past local governments used to collect and spend highway toll tax, but now this revenue is collected by the Centre, and local governments are not getting fair share of it.

He said that local government system has two many direct taxes; hence loc

A Learning Experience: Participants actively involved in group discussion
al taxes could not be promoted. He said that the powers at union council level to levy tax on cooks and barbers are not only impractical but also ridiculous. He urged that the devolution plan should be further improved and local councils empowered to collect taxes at local level.

Mr. Islam said that the local government system was aimed at strengthening democracy, as it ensured empowering elected people at grassroots level. He said that this ‘social mobilization’ means that citizens should play their role for progress and prosperity of their areas.

Defining the concept of ‘project’, he said that it objectives should be clear; it should be coupled with strategy to obtain the desired results within specified period from a specific investment. He said that the timeframe, resources, and getting desired results play an important role in success of any project.

At this point, Mr. Owais Aslam Ali added that the journalists should promote and highlight such projects that were directly or indirectly related to the media.

Mr. Zahid Islam also threw light on the concept of social mobilization, difference between a CCB and a project, difference between CCBs and NGOs, and weaknesses of the local government system. He told the audience that a district government has some 31 departments, and each department 11 groups. He said that the CCBs were an important component of the local government system, as 25percent of their development funds were spent on them. He said the budget of CCBs does not lapse at the close of fiscal year on June 30.

He said that a CCB could be registered under the Local Government Ordinance, and membership of 25 persons was needed for it, while only seven persons are needed for registering a NGO. He said that seven rules are there for registration of the CCB.

Mr. Muqtida Mansoor gave a lecture on feature writing. He told that the workshop participants that a feature should be free from the personal opinion of its writer, while an article should be based on the personal opinion of writer. He urged that articles should be written on the topics of local governments, torture on women, human rights and freedom of expression.

He said that a journalist plays the role of an informal teacher of society; hence the journalism should be used to spread knowledge.

Talking on the role of media in local governments, he said the responsibilities to run an organization, system or area according to the constitution and laws are called the governance. He said presently there are four types of governments in the world: monarchy, presidential system, parliamentary system and dictatorship.

He said that a democratic system could be divided into the presidential and parliamentary system. He said that the devolution of power system was introduced by the Muslim Ruler of Spain Khalifa Mansoor Thani. He said the devolution of power to a particular person is called the delegation of power. He said the delegation of power is generally of administrative nature and it could be withdrawn anytime. Giving example, he said the State Bank delegates its powers to local National Bank in the cities and towns having no branch of the State Bank.

He said on the other hand transferring of political, financial and administrative powers is called the devolution of power. He said that in the present local government system it is being tired to devolve powers at lower level.

He said that journalists should ensure their presence in meetings of union, Tehsil and district council meetings to themselves monitor the use of political, economic and administrative powers. They should also see if the suggestions of members and opposition were given importance in these meetings, opposition was taken into confidence in the budget-making process and the interests of neglected classes were safeguarded.

He also urged the journalists to see if the distribution of funds was justified, Nazims and councillors were able to get transferred the negligent officials, district governments were empowered to freely utilize their income, and Nazims and committee heads could be barred from misuse of powers.

He further said that the journalists should also note the presence of EDOs in district council meetings, and if action is taken on complaints of council members and monitoring committees, and committees are properly provided with funds.

In the concluding ceremony, Union Council Nazim Irshad Abbassi represented Tehsil Nazim Sardar Saleem Abbass, who could not attend the ceremony due to his other engagements.

Town Municipal Officer Ahmed Aziz Tarrar in his address said that the media was the mirror of any society. He showed dissatisfaction on the standard of local reporting. He termed present local governments system a successful one.

UC Nazim Irshad Abbassi, Abdul Hameed Abbassi, Naib Nazim Tariq Abbassi and Advocate Amjad Abbassi, on the occasion, answered to various questions of the workshop participants.

Mr. Muqtida Mansoor, speaking on the occasion, urged the workshop participants to practically apply what they learnt during the training workshop.

The workshop participants also visited the Tehsil Council Murree.

Later, certificates were distributed amongst the participants.