Pakistan-India Legislators and Public Officials Dialogue on Sharing of Experiences on Governance and Democracy

Joint

Statement

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  1. The tenth round of Pakistan-India

    Legislators and Public Officials Dialogue was facilitated

    by PILDAT in Dubai, UAE, on March 07, 2017. The dialogue focused

    on the theme of sharing of lessons on Technology for Better

    Governance in Pakistan and India.

  2. The Dialogue included Members of Parliament

    and Provincial Assemblies of Punjab and Sindh alongside experts and media

    representatives from Pakistan who joined Members of the Indian Parliament

    from Assam, Haryana and Karnataka and State Legislatures of Delhi and

    Gujarat alongside experts and media representatives from India.

  3. Participants underscored that technology

    has immense potential to improve governance in Pakistan and India. They

    recognised that while tremendous strides have been made across Pakistan

    and India in using technology for improved governance, there exists a

    lot of room for sharing of good practices between the two countries.

  4. Participants asserted that while use

    of technology by Governments provided a critical platform to improve the

    quality of life of citizens, Governments must do so while maintaining

    the security of data and privacy of citizens.

  5. Participants underscored that real changes

    in structures of governance to guard against corruption and other systemic

    ills must accompany and complement the use of technology to improve governance.

  6. Participants recommended that Governments

    must seek regular feedback from citizens to assess the real impact of

    technology in improving governance.

  7. While technology is helping citizens

    with ease of access to services, one of its key challenges is to engage

    citizens, especially the youth, as active participants in governance and

    public policy issues. The Governments must actively encourage individuals,

    businesses and NGOs to come up with initiatives and interfaces that improve

    administration and service delivery.

  8. Participants believed that tremendous

    opportunity for exchange and sharing of information exists between Pakistan

    and India on a variety of technology-enabled initiatives such as IndiaStack

    and PakistanStack. Of particular interest are the models of Benazir Income

    Support Programme (BISP), monitoring of immunisation programmes, Aadhaar

    authentication (Unique ID), e-Procurement, Smart Cities, e-Cloud for Citizens,

    land record management and Unified Payment Interface, etc. Setting up

    a knowledge portal between the two countries can be extremely useful in

    this regard.

  9. Another area of priority for the two

    countries is to provide necessary and uniform improvements to support

    technological governance. Each country has good use of technology implemented

    in different regions which must be extended nationwide. Exchange of good

    practices in this area will also enable the two countries to address the

    challenges of digital divide in both countries.

  10. Participants resolved to use their abilities

    and reach within Governments, Legislatures and Media to project the content

    and recommendations for action as given in the Joint Statement.

  11. Participants underscored that dialogue

    provides a good forum to share successful models. While commending PILDAT’s

    efforts in conceptualising, designing and facilitating dialogue and interaction

    between Pakistan and India, dialogue participants urged PILDAT to continue

    the dialogue on relevant themes in the future as well.

With Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar,

Former Member of the Indian Parliament and Union Minister of India

in the Chair, delegates from India included (order

of delegates in alphabetical order in the following sequence; Legislators

and Subject Experts/Journalists) Mr. Dushyant Chautala,

MP, Member, Lok Sabha, Indian National Lok Dal, Hisar (Haryana); Prof.

M.V. Rajeev Gowda, MP, Member, Rajya Sabha, Indian National Congress,

Karnataka; Mr. Shadi Lal Batra, MP, Member, Rajya Sabha,

Indian National Congress, Haryana; Ms. Sushmita Dev, MP,

Member, Lok Sabha, Indian National Congress, Silchar (Assam); Mr.

Madan Lal, MLA, Delhi Legislative Assembly, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP),

Kasturba Nagar (New Delhi); Mr. Shaktisinh Gohil, MLA, Gujarat

Legislative Assembly, Former Leader of the Opposition, Indian National Congress,

Abdasa (Gujarat); Mr. Rajesh Sharma, Member, Government

of Delhi, IT Task Force, India; Mr.

Roshan Shankar, Advisor to the Deputy Chief Minister,

Government of Delhi, India; Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar,

Former faculty member IIMA, Ahmedabad, Gujarat,

India; Mr. T.R. Raghunandan, Founder

and Mentor, Avantika Foundation, India and

Mr. Man Aman Chhina, Assistant Editor,

Indian Express, Punjab, India

With Mr. Muhammad Tallal Chaudry,

MNA, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), NA-76, Faisalabad-II, Punjab, in

the chair, delegates from Pakistan included (order of

delegates in alphabetical order in the following sequence of Legislators (National

Assembly of Pakistan, Provincial Assembly of the Punjab and Sindh, followed

by Subject Experts/Journalists and PILDAT Team) Dr. Arif Alvi,

MNA,Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), NA-250, Karachi-XII, Sindh;

Mrs.

Ayesha Javed, MPA, PML-N, W-317,

Punjab; Mrs. Azma Bukhari, MPA, PML-N, W-318,

Punjab; Mian Mehmood ur Rashid, MPA, Leader of the Opposition

PTI, PP-151 (Lahore-XV), Punjab; Dr. Murad Raas,

MPA, PTI, PP-152 (Lahore-XVI),

Punjab; Ms. Nabila Hakim Ali Khan, MPA, PTI,

W-358, Punjab; Mrs.

Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, MPA, Pakistan Muslim League

– Functional (PML-F), RSW-156, Sindh; Syeda

Shehla Raza, MPA, Deputy Speaker,

Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPP-P), RSW-132,

Sindh; Mr. Ali Mazhar, Joint Director, E-

Stamping, PITB, Lahore, Pakistan; Dr.

Umar Saif, Advisor to the Hon. Chief Minister of Punjab, Pakistan,

Chairman, Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) &

Vice Chancellor, Information Technology University, Lahore, Pakistan;

Mr. Habib Akram, Executive Editor, Dunya TV/Columnist Dunya

Newspaper, Islamabad, Pakistan; Rana Jawad, Director News,

Geo TV, Islamabad, Pakistan; Mr. Tahir Khalil, Bureau

Chief-Islamabad, Daily Jang, Islamabad, Pakistan;

Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President, PILDAT; Ms. Aasiya Riaz,

Joint Director, PILDAT and Ms. Shahira Khan,

Projects Manager, PILDAT.