PESHAWAR
\nThe Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) urges the Government of Pakistan to take immediate measures to rejoin the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which has withdrawn Pakistan\u2019s membership status after keeping it inactive for one year.
\nEven after submitting 25,000 USD Annual Subscription Fee in 2017, Pakistan was unable to adhere to the requirement of submitting a National Action Plan.
\nPakistan missed four deadlines for submitting the National Action Plan, which demonstrated sheer non-seriousness and lack of commitment to transparency governance and international commitments, said a press release issued here on Tuesday.
\nOGP is a multilateral forum, which provides an \u201cinternational platform for domestic reformers committed to make their governments more open, accountable and responsive to the citizens.\u201d
\nIt was launched in 2011 and 76 countries have joined till date.
\nIts aim is to secure concrete commitments from the governments to promote transparency, empower citizens and fight corruption. Pakistan joined OGP, when the then Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, presented the Letter of Intent during the OGP Global Forum held in Paris in December 2016.
\nThe next step, after joining the OGP, was to make a National Action Plan for two years to demonstrate its commitment that the government of Pakistan will open up public sector institutions to public participation and accountability.
\nThese commitments were to be discussed and finalized on a forum jointly represented by government and civil society.
\nIn 2017, the Economic Affairs Division had formed an interim multi-stakeholder forum to finalize the National Action Plan for Open Government Partnership.
\nThe 21 members\u2019 forum consisted of representatives from provincial departments, federal ministries, Gilgit-Baltistan and Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and six (6) civil society organizations.
\nThe multi stakeholder forum developed an initial NAP that included nine national and six sub-national OGP commitments.
\nAfter its development, the NAP was to be formally approved by the cabinet prior to its submission to the OGP secretariat, but this never happened.
\nWhile commenting on the withdrawal of Pakistan\u2019s OGP membership, Mukhtar Ahmed Ali, Executive Director CPDI, said that \u201cIt ishighly irresponsible on the part of the Government that it failed in submitting the NAP, despite repeated deadlines.
\nIt is ironic that it has happened during the tenure of the PTI lead government, which claims to be committed to the cause of transparent and accountable governance.
\nIt failed to act even after the OGP suspended Pakistan\u2019s membership in 2020 and kept its inactive status for one year.\u201d
\nHe added that the withdrawal of OGP membership status would not reflect well on Pakistan, and would weaken efforts within the country towards more participatory governance.It may be noted that CPDI has been a member of the multi-stake holder forum developed under the OGP; and has been repeatedly urging the government to develop NAP through a number of letters and press releases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR The Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) urges the Government of Pakistan to take immediate measures to rejoin the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which has withdrawn Pakistan\u2019s membership status after keeping it inactive for one year. Even after submitting 25,000 USD Annual Subscription Fee in 2017, Pakistan was unable to adhere to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-250753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n