LAHORE - The local government is not on political parties’ agenda in the 2018 general elections.

At a consultation hosted by Sangat Development Foundation (SDF) at a hotel here on Sunday, Dr Nausheen Hamid of the PTI said her party would announce the schedule for local government elections within 100 days after coming into power.

At the end of the session, the participants said the local government budget should not lapse at the end of the financial year; it should be tied to completion of the project.

Speaking on the occasion, local government expert Zahid Islam said that party manifestos were seen as an important instrument for measuring priorities of political parties.

In the history of Pakistan, this is the first time that 165,000 elected local government representatives are working and the local government system is functional before the general elections in 2018. “Majority of local government representatives are affiliated with political parties,” he said.

Representatives of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Pak Sarzameen Party, Awami Workers Party, Jamhoori Watan Party and Awami Party Pakistan participated in the discussion.  All participants highlighted importance of local governments and said they will strengthen democracy.

Local governments provide an opportunity to ordinary citizens to become responsible for financial and administrative affairs of their areas, they said.

Besides political parties’ representatives, a number of civil society members, local government experts and representatives of the government and the media attended the event.

Nausheen Hamid of the PTI, Barrister Amir of the PPP, Azhar Iqbal of the JI, Naseem Kanwal of the PML, Shazia Khan of the AWP and Mubeen Qazi of the Pak Sarzameen Party were present on the occasion.