Source & Credit: Daily Times
By Afnan Khan
LAHORE: The strengthening of democracy is dependent upon the strengthening of the local government system, the first Pakistani to be elected as a member of the Swedish Parliament from the Social Democratic Party, Malik Nasim, said on Sunday.
Talking to Daily Times about the current political system of Sweden, he said there was no concept of family based politics in true democracies across the world and they had given power in the hands of their citizens.
Nasim said contrary to the norms of a true democracy, Pakistan was still marred by a family based political system, and it was high time the people of Pakistan decided whether they wanted a democratic structure within the political parties or not.
Adopt: “Pakistanis have adopted the European culture, now they should adopt the democratic culture, which is owned by the common man,” he said.
Nasim said the locals of a county elect the leaders of political parties in Sweden and the party members of a specific area have the right to replace the party candidate with another candidate of their own choice.
He said these leaders have to pass through a strong selection process among the counties before they can lead a party at the federal level. Nasim said the development of a local government system at the grassroots level is a good step, which should be appreciated and further exploited to make it effective for the masses.
He said the counties in Sweden collect majority of the taxes and his county had imposed about 34 percent taxes on the total income of a person, while 44 percent of the total collected taxes from his area were spent on education only.
Nasim said taxes collected within the counties are spent on the people only. “There is no concept of giving the development funds to members of the Parliament in Sweden, while local councils are responsible for the development of their areas and are given a budget to do that,” he said.
Focus: He said parliamentarians and politicians should only focus on legislation and should not get involved in other affairs such as development work. “A democracy where parliamentarians focus on legislation only sets the outline of a social state, as people concentrate on development work within their areas, while mainstream leaders make laws to facilitate them across the board,” Nasim said.
Read original story here: Strong LG system will lead to a strong democracy: Swedish MP
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