Peshawar Consultation

 

Provincial consultation on Countering Corruption
Monday, March 10th, 2014.
PC Peshawar
 

Purpose of Event:

Provincial consultation was conducted in Peshawar Pearl Continental on countering Corruption. The objective of the consultation was:

  • to improve engagement between citizens and government in order to promote good governance in Pakistan, by strengthening citizens’ voice and public accountability
  • to solicit views of the new government on its plans and commitment to countering corruption and improving accountability and transparency mechanisms, and
  • to seek commitment of political party leaders to our Charter of demand document.

 

 

 

 

 

Proceeding of event:
 


 DELTA conducted this consultation on countering corruption at PC hotel Peshawar.
After recitation of holy Quran and inaugural address, the following speakers delivered keynote speeches at the event:

  • Mr. Yousaf Riaz Khalil, Advocate High Court, presented recommendations for countering corruption, and said citizens can use RTI to eliminate corruption by demanding information from the govt.
  • Zareen Zia, MPA PTI, spoke on eliminating corruption from education sector.
  • Arbab Akbar Hayat,  MPA, PML-N, said his party leader the prime minister, was bringing drastic changes as he wanted to transform Pakistan into a modern progressive state. During their 5 years of rule in Punjab, PML N had demonstrated that corruption can be eliminated from our society, and his party will do so now.

The event was addressed by Naazlee Sardar, President of DELTA, who showed a presentation on Charter of Demands, which was made by DELTA in 2013. She was happy to report that some of the demands were already met by the PTI govt, like passing legislation on Right to Information, to enable citizens to access information, like replacing Anti-Corruption Establishment, a toothless body with Ehtesab Cell; replacing ACE’s 18 grade officer who could not check corruption by his superiors in 19 – 22 grades, with a commissioner with more powers. She however lamented that reports were circulating how PTI govt was indulging in corruption; the CM Citizens Complaint Cell (CCC) is housed between Governor house and CM house, so how many citizens can access it. Moreover DELTA filed a complaint but found CCC ineffective because after lapse of 5 months an official written response is still awaited. She said that Pakistan ranked at 28 while India at 36, on a score of 1 (poor) -100 (good) as per the International Corruption Index, and it was time that we as a nation raised our voice against corruption and eliminated it by claiming our rights in an appropriate manner.
A short play by children of Panjpir, Swabi, on corruption in our culture, filled colors in the event and everyone enjoyed and appraised the performance of small children.
Azmat hanif Orakzai, Former Secretary Information, and Professor Abbas khan, Advisor Coordination Cell were present to give answers for questions. Several questions were raised during question answer session by the participants on problems with education and health sectors and related to RTI. The leaders answered these questions.
Chief Guest, Mr. Imtiaz Shahid, Deputy Speaker, Provincial assembly, KPK said that its govt was working for removing corruption. As corruption has entrenched every aspect of our society, it is difficult to remove it but that is not deterring our govt and PTI from accepting this challenge. It is a difficult challenge but not impossible. He appreciated DELTA’s endeavours in advocacy and said PTI welcomed civil society’s contribution in working for good governance.

Achievements of the Event:

  • Awareness about elimination of corruption was sought and achieved
  • Presentation of COD was made to highlight points to eliminate the corruption in different sectors of the province. 
  • In consultation meeting during the questions answer session many points were explained further to participants
  • Also some complaints to speakers and panelists speakers for betterment in education and health sectors were addressed. 

Participant Detail
Total Number of Participants:                   79
Number of Male Participants:                    75
Number of Female Participants:                 4

Attachment 1-

Attachment 2: Pictures of event 10 march 2014

Ms. Naazlee Sardar presented Charter of Demand

Ms. Zareen Zia MPA-PTI

Mr. Arbab Akbar Hayat MPA PML-N

Yusuf Riaz Khalil (Advocate)

 

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