Lahore-Birmingham friendship body set up

The Lahore-Birmingham Friendship Association (LBFA) has been set up to strengthen ties between the two cities following Lahore Nazim Mian Amir Mehmood's visit and meetings with representatives of Birmingham City Council.
Mian Amir who left for the United States on Wednesday to give a lecture on the local bodies system at Harvard University, told reporters at a luncheon hosted in his honour by Labour peer Lord Nazir Ahmed at the House of Lords late on Tuesday.
Lord Nazir Ahmed and Councillor Afzal have been made the first Patrons of the Association established on Tuesday while it would be helped by a committee yet to be announced.
The membership of this association would be open to all overseas Pakistanis in the UK.
This was a first step towards making Lahore and Birmingham as twin cities at some later stage.
Answering a question, he said the political parties who were vehemently against this system has gradually diluted their criticism and were now saying that this was provincial subject and not a federal subject.
Amir said this system had been given the constitutional protection and would last beyond 2006.
He said that a Bill about the Local Bodies System could not be moved even in the National Assembly without the prior approval of the President.
Under this system the elected representatives had been given executive power and a District Nazim had to oversee 31 departments including the education through involvement of the people.
Amir said he inherited 189 fake schools in Lahore alone which had been merged into other schools now and laws were being introduced to check such mal-practices in the future.
Besides the private sector is being engaged to adopt the schools and people have adopted over 300 schools in Lahore to help government promote education.
Amir said he was creating awareness in the people to hold the responsible people accountable if the school in their area was not working properly.
During his three-day stay here Amir met senior representatives of Birmingham and Manchester city and discussed with them ways to both improve local bodies system.
He was also briefed by them on ways to dispose off the solid waste in a scientific way as he was here to learn from the British experience in this regard.
Earlier, Deputy Mayor of Kensington Chelsea Mushatq Lashari gave tea party to Nazim Lahore at his office while Mayor Christopher Buckmaster grace the occasion.