Islamabad: October 2, 2015 - Representatives of the Provincial Governments of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and Balochistan shared their Governments� respective achievements with the Governance Assessment Group for the purpose of PILDAT�s on-going assessment of the Quality of Governance in the Federal Government and the four provinces during their second year from June 2014 to May 2015. The briefing spread over two days provided a rare opportunity to the 25-member Governance Assessment Group to interact with the Provincial Governments and seek answers to some of the questions on the governance.

Representatives of the Governments joined PILDAT upon a special invitation to share the details of the initiatives undertaken by each Government during its second year in office; 1st June, 2014- 31st May, 2015.

PILDAT, which has been working since 2002 to assess the quality of democracy in Pakistan, is now, in addition, carrying out a comparative assessment and Score Card on Quality of Governance at the Federal and Provincial levels. The first such comparative assessment and Score Card on Quality of Governance covering the 1st year of the Federal and Provincial Governments elected through the 2013 General Election was completed earlier this year. PILDAT is now undertaking the second cycle of assessments and is currently engaged in consultations with Government representatives and governance experts to ensure accuracy and validity of the data collected on various governance assessment parameters, devised as part of an indigenously developed framework.

On this occasion, representatives from the Provincial Government of Punjab included Ms. Zakia Shahnawaz Khan, Minister for Population Welfare, Punjab, joined by Mr. Iftikhar Ali Sahoo, Secretary, Planning and Development Department and Mr. Zaman Wattoo, Additional Secretary (I&C), Services & General Administration Department. Balochistan Government was represented by Mr. Zulfiqar Durrani, Secretary Planning and Development Department joined by Mr. Mujib Ur Rahman, Chief of Foreign Aid, Planning and Development Department and Mr. Arif Hussain Shah, Chief of Section Federal Projects Balochistan. Representatives from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa included Mr. Ambar Ali Khan, Chief Economist, Planning & Development Government of KP, joined by Mr. Muhammad Bakhtiar Khan, Coordinator Reforms Cell, Mr. Syed Zahir Ali Shah, Chief of Coordination Planning and Development Department and Ms. Nasiba Bibi, Communications Specialist, Planning and Development Department. Mr. Ayhan Mustafa Bhutto, Deputy Secretary (Admin), Planning & Development Department, represented Government of Sindh and made a brief presentation though a detailed presentation on the Government of Sindh is expected to be made to the PILDAT Governance Assessment Group during the second week of October when the Federal Government representatives are also scheduled to meet the group members.

The members of PILDAT�s Governance Assessment Group who joined the meeting included Mr. Abdul Hakim Baluch, Former Chief Secretary of Balochistan, Mr. Mohammad Feyyaz, Peace and Security Researcher, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Moinuddin Haider, Former Governor Sindh, Mr. Shahid Hamid, Senior Advocate Supreme Court, Former Governor Punjab, Dr. Tariq Hassan, Senior Lawyer, Former Chairman SECP, Mr. Javed Ashraf Husain, Former Chief Secretary Sindh, Mr. Nohman Ishtiaq, Public Finance Management Expert, Mr. Arshad Saeed Khan, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist; Former Senior National Specialist (Education), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Mr. Shamsul Mulk, Former Caretaker Chief Minister KP; Former Chairman WAPDA, Dr. Niaz Murtaza, Development and Political Economist, Senior Fellow UC Berkley, Mr. Saeed Ahmed Qureshi, Former Chief Secretary Sindh, Mr. Ghazi Salahuddin, Senior Journalist at The News, Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Former Federal Tax Ombudsman, Former I.G. Police, Ms. Rabia Sultan, Director Farmer�s Association Pakistan, Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President PILDAT and Ms. Aasiya Riaz, Joint Director PILDAT.

Government representatives provided valuable inputs, highlighting the key areas of improvements in governance at the provincial level and members of the assessment group gave their expert insights on the performance of the Provincial Governments during the discussion sessions following the Government presentations.