Lahore's twin sisters ignored by successive governments

* City of Glasgow provided Lahore with Rescue 1122 training and vehicles
* CDGL official says city should form committees to develop 'twin' relationships

LAHORE: Despite the passage of 32 years since the first twinning of Lahore with a city in another country, no attempt has been made by any government to promote interaction between the declared sister cities.

Out of the 11 declared sister cities, four were brought into the relationship during the tenure of district nazim Mian Amer Mahmood. The city of Glasgow is the only sister city which has contributed anything towards the relationship by offering training facilities for the Rescue 1122 services, as well as donating fire-fighting vehicles to Lahore.

Istanbul, Turkey, the first sister city of Lahore, was twinned in 1975 with the motive to strengthen the existing relationship between the two Muslim countries.

The second twinning was with Sari Won, a city in the Democratic Republic of Korea in 1988. No exchange of delegations has happened since the inception of this relationship. Another sisterly relationship was established with the Chinese city of Xian, which was geographically linked with Pakistan in 1992. The fourth such relationship was created with Kortrijk, Belgium, in 1993 through the signing of an agreement between the Mayor of Kortrijk and the then Mayor of Lahore, Mian Abdul Majid.

Mian Muhammad Azhar, in his capacity as Governor of Punjab, signed an agreement of sisterhood with the Moroccan city of Fez in 1994, while the Spanish city of Cordova was twinned in 1994 by AU Saleem, the then administrator of Lahore. Samarkand, Uzbekistan was made a sister of Lahore in 1995 by the then administrator of Lahore, Javed Malik.

Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood, in his capacity as district nazim, entered Lahore into twin city relationships with the Iranian City of Isfahan and Mashad in 2004 and 2006, respectively, and Glasgow, UK, in 2006, and Chicago, USA, in February 2007.

Following the establishment of a similar relationship with Chicago, the then chief minister, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, formed a committee to supervise the implementation of provisions in the agreement.

Developing relationships: A City District Government Lahore (CDGL) official told Daily Times that many of the sister cities, like Glasgow, have a separate wing in their city administrations to ensure the implementation of the accords. He said that they vigorously pursued these relationships and tried to reap maximum benefits from them. He suggested that the local representatives should form a committee and develop relations with the administrations of other city governments, adding that mere declarations would not yield anything concrete.

District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood said that the CDGL was considering the formation of two committees, which would exclusively focus on promoting interaction between the twin cities of Lahore. He said that one committee would oversee relationships between all the sisterly cities, while separate committees dealing with every twin city would also be formed to give the relationships a vibrant touch.

The nazim maintained that local representatives would be included in these committees, which would broaden their exposure, adding that through visits planned by these committees, the CDGL would aim at capacity building of its representatives. They would, in turn, be better equipped to deliver at the grassroots individual level.