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Provincial finance commissions under study, says Omar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Omar Asghar Khan has said that government is considering a proposal to create provincial finance commissions.

Addressing a workshop on "devolution of Power to the Grassroots Level: Optimising the Government's Framework" on Sunday he said that the commissions are being proposed to facilitate the flow of funds to districts in order to make the district governments more functional and financially workable.

The two-day workshop was organised by Liberal Forum Pakistan in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. It was attended by NGOs representatives, women activists, human rights workers, government officials, diplomats and members of the press.

After hearing the presentations of Working Groups, the minister clarified a number of questions raised in the plenary. He said that the government is also considering Public Information Act for providing all government information to people and Press on demand.

In this regard, he said, that there are various proposals being discussed and some relate to providing access to journalists to visit police stations and government offices. He said that it is also being deliberated that how information should be made public and what kind of information should be available to people at what time.

Omar Asghar Khan said that care had to be taken so that sensitive information should not go in the hands of those people who want to create disorder in the society. APP