ISLAMABAD, Sep 05 (APP):Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday clarified his remarks regarding new provinces, saying most of Pakistan’s social and human resource indicators had continuously declined during the last fifteen years that needed significant improvement for achieving the national development goals. He said the main reason for the country’s poor performance in the social sector was the lack of transfer of powers …
Ahsan clarifies remarks on new provinces, calls for grassroots empowerment
ISLAMABAD, Sep 05 (APP):Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday clarified his remarks regarding new provinces, saying most of Pakistan’s social and human resource indicators had continuously declined during the last fifteen years that needed significant improvement for achieving the national development goals.
He said the main reason for the country’s poor performance in the social sector was the lack of transfer of powers and resources to the grassroots level after the 18th Amendment and the centralization of powers at the provincial level.
Ahsan Iqbal said that in order to accelerate the process of national development, Pakistan needed to overcome its weaknesses in human resources and the social sectors at a very fast pace.
In this regard, he said, the country had two options. The first option was to establish empowered local governments in 160 districts, which would be directly provided resources from the Provincial Finance Commission, or to establish 12 or 15 new provinces through consensus, as the current administrative structure had become overloaded with a population of 260 million.
He further said that the formation of 160 district governments was need of the hour so that powers could be transferred to the lowest level and development could be made possible in backward areas.
He said that results in any sector depended on effective implementation of projects and their local monitoring.
All over the world, the minister said, powers were being transferred to the doorstep of the people so that service delivery could be brought closer to them, while in Pakistan, no effective action had been taken in this direction.
Ahsan Iqbal clarified that unless powers were transferred to the grassroots level, sustainable solutions to public problems were not possible.
He said the success of any administrative structure depended on its ability to change and reform itself according to changing circumstances. “A system that remains static falls apart,” he remarked.
He said the discussion on the administrative structure in the country should be above political interests and held in the light of the requirements of the country’s development.
He added that politicians themselves should take the matter forward.
