Omar Asghar Khan Awami Assembly (July, 2009)

"UNHEARD VOICES /PEACE AND GOVERNANCE"

Annual Partner's Assembly is an important event of Sungi's advocacy approach to bring together a wide range of stakeholders, partners, local communities, civil society organizations, parliamentarians, elected local representative, government line departments, donors, activists and experts so that the voices of the unheard are heard; a shared understanding of and the way forward about the current peace and governance issues facing the poor is developed. This year the annual partner assembly was named ''Omar Asghar Khan Awami Assembly'' as a tribute to the founder of Sungi development Foundation Omar Asghar Khan who scarified his life for the the poor and marginalized people of Pakistan.

A two day AWAMI ASSEMBLY held at Abbottabad on July 2-3rd was attended by human rights volunteers, scholars, researchers and representatives of the civil society.

People from all spheres of life participated, who belonged to variety of far-flung remote areas i.e. FATA, FRs, Swat, Malakand,Sindh, Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan.

This year the Omar Asghar Khan Awami Assembly was held at a time when the whole country was going through one crisis or another. Weak governance and extreme sectarianism added further complexity to the situation. These crises have badly affected the poor as well as the common man in their businesses, jobs and all aspects of their daily life, causing social and peace unrest. To a large extent, people have become disappointed and are unsatisfied. Terrorism as well as extremism has caused the most unprivileged segment of the society, especially women, suffer in terms of education and mobility.

Theme

The key theme for the OMAR ASGHAR KHAN AWAMI ASSEMBLY this year was ''Unheard Voices; Peace and Governance''. Besides a keynote address and plenary discussion, Several sub themes have been identified for focus discussions like Peace Deal Politics (to cover all the deals whether in Swat or Fata), Extremism/Terrorism; A Religious Perspective, Governance Crisis; Civil-Military Relations, Ongoing Conflict and Humanitarian Crisis, Lawyers Movement; Lessons Learnt, CSOs Role in Peace Building, Federalism and Provincial Autonomy and Regional, International Peace Policies/Barriers was discussed in smaller groups and on assembly floor.

Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmad was the key note speaker of occasion. Justice Wahjihuddin is the former Chief justice of Sindh high court and Supreme Court of Pakistan. He played a vital role in the moment of restoration and revival of Judiciary in Pakistan. In this Public Assembly he delivered a comprehensive speech on the theme topic ''Unheard Voices; Peace and governance''.

He also served as a resource person for the group work titled ''Lawyers moment and lessons learnt'' at the second session of assembly.

Miss Najma Sadiq who has the experience of 20 years in the field of journalism currently she is heading the component of THE GREEN ACONOMIN S AND GLOBLAIZATION INITIATIVES of the NGO Shirkat Gah. Now days she is having an eye on the agricultural issues focusing on WTO, corporate farming and promotion of organic agriculture.

She thoroughly discussed the consequences and tactics of the corporate farming and the manipulation of the world agriculture by great giants who pretend to be the saviours.

As a resource person she facilitated the group on The ''Impact foreign policies on poor segment of Pakistan''.

Mr. Asad Rehman who is the Director Programs of Sungi Development Foundation discussed ''The Role of Civil Society Organizations'' in perspective of contemporary situations with the reference of past.
On the same topic he conducted and led the group work.

Mr Nisar Shah, who is a lawyer by profession and general secretary of Labour Party of Pakistan, discussed the labour rights situation in Pakistan and conducted a dialogue on the same topic.

Dr. Ishaq Baloch, Senior vice precedent of National Party Pakistan came from Baluchistan and delivered a speech on the ''Federalism and Provincial Autonomy''.
He also conducted the group work to elaborate the issues of the provincial autonomy.

In two days assembly session, group works, dialogues and question answer session, speakers and participants yielded the following recommendations:

1	Agricultural reforms should be immediately implemented and women should be given land ownership rights.
2	Equal/equitable/just distribution of resources and province's control over them.
3	Provinces should be given complete autonomy and the defence budget should be reduced to increase the social sector budget.
4	Women and children should be given access to basic facilities.
5	The army and Intelligence agencies should not interfere in politics.
6	FCR should be abolished and the Tribal areas should be adjusted in N.W.F.P.
7	An accurate estimation of the economic as well as losses of life should be made in areas of unrest and a special commission should be formed for their compensation/mitigation in which people that have migrated and aid agencies should be given full representation.
8	Rehabilitation, help and care should be provided to those who have migrated, this responsibility should be shared by the civil administration along with the army.
9	Policies and plans formulated for the IDPs should specifically cater to the special needs of women and children.
10	The media should be provided access to the areas of unrest.
11	National and International organizations should have access to people that have migrated from the tribal areas.
12	Madrasa's curriculum should be changed, and subjects promoting militancy should be removed. The curriculum should be designed according to current requirements.
13	Organizations involved in militancy should immediately be banned.
14	All publications and FM radios promoting militancy should immediately be banned.
15	Peace and tolerance should be promoted.
16	Education, especially child education should be promoted, and the curriculum should be set according to current needs.
17	Judicial policy should be brought into practice in order to provide public with justice.
18	Political interference in judiciary should be minimized and the number of women judged should be increased
19	Loans from foreign countries should be refused and agreements with international monetary organisations should be approved by the parliament.
20	Environmental friendly and sustainable policies should be formulated
21	The parliament should have the right to form internal and foreign policies and the Governments interference in interior issues should be resisted.
22	There should be no interference in any neighbouring countries affairs and neither should any interference from any neighbouring country be tolerated.
23	People of the tribal, semi-tribal and northern areas should be given their political and constitutional/ legal rights.
24	Awareness should be created about the harmful effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides/herbicides, amongst the poor community.
25	Organic farming/agriculture should be promoted.

Omar Asghar Khan was born on July 3,1953. He led an event full life. In his school days he was well-known for his exceptional sporting talents. Read More

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