LAHORE: Lawmakers from Pakistan’s Parliament and provincial assemblies have pledged to strengthen their legislative, budgetary, and oversight roles to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the newly adopted Punjab Parliamentary SDG Accord (2025–2030). The declaration was endorsed during the Punjab Parliamentarians’ Conference on the SDGs, held on Dec 3–4 at the Punjab Assembly.
The cross-party Accord sets a unified vision for embedding sustainable development principles into provincial governance, emphasising equity, inclusion, gender equality, transparency, climate resilience, and measurable results. Parliamentarians reaffirmed that Pakistan’s constitutional framework positions assemblies as central drivers of SDG progress through lawmaking, budget scrutiny, and executive oversight.
Focus on Stronger SDG-Linked Legislation
Under the Accord, MPs committed to reviewing all existing and new laws through an SDG lens. Priority areas include legislation that strengthens gender equality, protects marginalised groups, and supports climate-resilient development. Lawmakers also agreed to advance reforms that improve coordination between provincial and local governments to enhance service delivery.
Budget Reforms to Support Equitable Development
A major pillar of the Accord is the integration of SDG priorities into budgeting processes. Legislators agreed to promote SDG-tagged expenditures, review district-level indicators to address inequalities, and push for increased spending in underserved districts. They also pledged to scrutinise development budgets more rigorously by analysing absorption capacity, identifying bottlenecks, and supporting predictable resource flows to frontline service providers.
Standing committees will now be required to mainstream SDG priorities in all departmental reviews and request district-wise and gender-disaggregated data to ensure evidence-based oversight.
Adopt five-year accord for localised, equitable development. https://t.co/FifcseyZsi
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Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight and Constituency Action
The Accord mandates joint or committee-of-the-whole sessions on major SDG themes while ensuring systematic follow-up on recommendations. At the constituency level, MPs committed to advancing SDG outcomes in education, health, water and sanitation, climate resilience, livelihoods, and social inclusion. Each member will hold at least one annual constituency-level consultation on SDG priorities and strengthen community feedback mechanisms.
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Boosting Local Governance and Data Transparency
Recognising local governments as the “third tier” of governance, lawmakers pledged support for increased administrative and financial decentralisation and more transparent fiscal transfers. An innovative feature of the Accord is the creation of Assembly-level SDG Dashboards, offering constituency-wise snapshots of progress and highlighting lagging indicators.
Implementation will be backed by the Punjab Assembly Secretariat, the Punjab SDG Task Force, the Parliamentary Development Unit (PDU), and partners including UNDP, with biannual progress reviews.
Speakers at the conference included Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Pildat President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, and UNDP representatives Samuel Rizk, Naveed Ahmed Sheikh, and Shahbano.
