Staff Reporter An NGO, Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO), launched a project to strengthen local governments’ role for building peace and sustainable development in Sindh. The project aims to build the capacity of the elected local government officials, secretaries of union councils and local stakeholders on the laws related to countering violent extremism in Sindh. The project will initially be implemented in two union councils of each district of Karachi, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Sukkur and Jacobabad. The main focus of the training will be countering violent extremism laws of the Government of Sindh which includes Sindh Sound System Act, Sindh Witness Protection law, Sindh Information of Temporary Residents Act and countering hate speech to promote interfaith harmony among the local communities. These laws are important part of the national action plan but the awareness in the local communities and district officials is not sufficient due to which these laws are not properly implemented at the local level. The SSDO has already conducted successful intervention with the members of Sindh Assembly (MPAS), in which 30 MPAs and the senior officials of the departments were trained on these laws to improve legislative oversight for effective implementation of these laws in Sindh. The MPAs also submitted questions and motions related to the implementation of these laws in Sindh and organized constituency level awareness campaign on the laws related to peace building and sustainable development in Sindh. The union council level peace committees will be established in collaboration with the elected union council representatives and secretary of the union council and will conduct the training of union councils peace committees on laws related to peace building and countering violent extremism in Sindh. The union councils peace committees will be facilitated to launch awareness campaign on these laws in the local communities of the union councils and the district.
