Jamia Hafsa must resort to legal means: Maqbool

Punjab Governor Lieutenant General (Retd) Khalid Maqbool has stated that students of Jamia Hafsa started firing at Islamabad on Tuesday, however, the government does not believe in confrontation and wants to resolve the issue peacefully.
He was expressing his views to newsmen on Tuesday, after the concluding ceremony of Pak-India Symposium on Local Government that was organised by the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB). Indian Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, parliamentarians, NRB Chairman Daniyal Aziz and local government representatives were also present on the occasion.
The Governor maintained that the government would not tolerate extremism, which is also against the spirit of Islam. "The administration of the Lal Masjid should resort to legal means to get their grievance readdress and the government is willing to listen to them," he added. On local government system, he said that it was now in its sixth year and the experience has been a successful one. However, there was still a room for improvement, he added.
While addressing the concluding ceremony, Khalid Maqbool said that the symposium was a great idea, which has provided a platform to learn from each other. He further said that President General Pervez Musharraf took the task of introducing radical reforms with the aim of bringing progress and prosperity in the country. "Reforms were introduced in the realm of economy and government structure," he added.
It was a fact that governance and development would have remained a major issue in the country unless radical steps were taken. Thus a new system of local government was introduced, under which administrative, financial and governance were devolved to the grass-root level. The government had to face criticism from different quarters, but its step proved otherwise after the success of the local government system in Pakistan.
He said that now the people have access to government to get their grievances addressed and could take part in the development of their areas; the new system has created a new class of leadership and politicians. On the occasion, Indian Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said that they had profitable experience at Lahore, which was his birth-place.
He commended the local government system in Pakistan and said that it was operating successfully. "We have leant a great deal of district governments and were impressed by its working," he added. The Indian Minister said that they have added a new dimension in to people-to-people contact by bringing a delegation of Indian local government representatives to Pakistan.
"Relationship between two countries was of an understanding nature, but between two peoples it was a friendship; and people-to-people contact of the two neighbouring countries would cement a friendship," he added. While talking to newsmen, Mani said that the concept of Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) was new to them and they found it very good; they would study it when they go back home and would adopted it to their needs.
He further said that one could not depend on bureaucracy for welfare of society; in India law and order was dealt by the Indian bureaucracy, while the remaining issues were handle by the people's representatives. "Our experience shows that we could depend on bureaucracy for progress," he added.
On the occasion, NRB Chairman Daniyal Aziz presented recommendations of the Pakistan-Indian Joint Working Group of Local Governance. He said that the Working Group recommended the following activities for consideration of the forum in consultation with the respective Governments: the two sides would continue to share their evolving experience, particularly with a view to facilitating people-to-people contact.
To facilitate these exchanges Pakistan and India should host one meeting each year, besides arranging face-to-face encounters in each others' country of elected representatives to local self-government institutions.
All stakeholders, including elected representatives, think-tanks, government officials, academia, researchers and civil society representatives should be invited to these meetings to share and disseminate best practices and innovations in service delivery at the local level.
Best practices and innovations should be regularly shared between the two countries through the NRB in Pakistan and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj in India. Moreover, stakeholders would be encouraged to exchange views on issues surrounding local governance and to participate in action research and in developing comparative studies.
And, experts and officials on local governance from both the countries should be invited, under an exchange programme, to participate as resource persons in the academies. Schools and institutions in Pakistan and India should impart training and disseminate emerging developments in the field of local governance.