By Asim Shahzad
LAHORE – HomeNet Pakistan, AwazCDS-Pakistan, and the Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA) jointly hosted a consultative session at the HomeNet Pakistan Rights Based Information and Resource Center, Lahore, to critically examine the constitutional, political, administrative, and financial challenges confronting local governments in Pakistan.
The session marked the launch of a white paper titled “Legislation Without Movement: The Status of Local Government in Punjab”, highlighting systemic weaknesses and the urgent need for reforms. It featured research findings on deep fiscal and governance gaps undermining local bodies across the province.
Ms. Humera Aslam, Provincial Coordinator of HomeNet Pakistan, presented the white paper, emphasizing how global funding crises have adversely affected development projects. She noted that although the PML-N returned to power in the 2024 general elections with a parliamentary majority and pledged in its manifesto to empower local governments, implement reforms, and ensure timely LG elections with fiscal devolution, governance still reflects centralization. She explained that the Punjab Local Government Bill 2025 aims to restructure local governments but retains strong provincial control through the role of Deputy Commissioners in planning and fund disbursement.
She also outlined the timeline of local government systems and elections in Punjab from 2001 to 2025, adding that the Punjab Local Government Bill 2025 (Bill No. 26 of 2025) proposes a three-tier system: Metropolitan Corporations, District Councils, and Neighborhood Councils. Stressing the importance of democratic decentralization, she underlined the link between functional local governance and Pakistan’s ability to meet its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Concluding the session, Ms. Attia Hanif of PDA emphasized reversing the trend of recentralization and effectively implementing Punjab’s devolved governance framework. She called for province-specific reforms, including restoring democratic continuity by protecting LG tenure through amendments to the Punjab LG Act, enforcing timely elections under judicial oversight, reviving the dormant Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) for equitable resource distribution, and discontinuing politically driven development schemes. She further stressed the need to strengthen fiscal autonomy, transfer local revenue streams to LGs, build their digital and administrative capacity, and professionalize LG institutions through independent cadres, robust oversight, and capacity-building programs.
