A one-day
consultation to discuss
the revival of local governments was organised in Islamabad recently.
Interesting political economy discourse took place during the meeting. The
principal point of conflict that surfaced was between two groups, both
comprising academics, activists and practitioners. One of them was of the view
that the local government’s revival needs to be questioned in the context of
its history, i.e. the military governments in Pakistan have instituted local
governments for their own political purposes. The other group attacked
politicians and political parties, blaming them for non-implementation of the
constitutional requirements for setting up local governments and for their
patronage politics.
The other
argument was that, since, the national and provincial assembly politicians are
allocated huge developmental budgets for their constituencies; they are opposed
to local governments due to a fear of them cutting into their spheres of power.
Both arguments have elements of truth in them. The real challenge, however, was
to make both camps think about a way forward.
Setting
aside the origins of the local government and its relationship with issues of
legitimacy, the basic reality is that local governments are a constitutional
requirement now. Article 140 A of the constitution states: “Each Province
shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political,
administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected
representatives of the local governments. Elections to the local governments
shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan.” Articles 32 and 7 also
support the local governments as public institutions.
The 18th
Amendment of the constitution is a truly historic document, in the way it
has decentralised functions of the federal government to the provincial
governments by doing away with the concurrent list. However, the buck does not
stop with the provinces. Just as the federal government was working along the
principles of administrative and financial concentration, now provincial
governments have become the ‘new centres’. Hence, provincial governments do not
want to devolve further to the local governments. The main issue, therefore, is
how to create incentives for the provincial governments to move towards
instituting local governments as per the constitutional requirement. A strongly
supported courses of action was to encourage grass roots mobilisation to push
for change. Once the provincial governments and politicians will see a
groundswell in this direction, they may be inclined to call for elections for
the local governments. One of the natural constituencies for such a
mobilisation will be ex-nazims and counsellors, particularly in the
marginalised community of peasants, workers and women.
Of course,
some such process is underway in the provinces. Sindh has re-enacted the local
governments, however, it needs to be presented to the provincial assembly. In
the Khyber-Pakhtunkha, the local government bill is almost ready and needs to
be presented in the provincial assembly. The Balochistan provincial government
is sitting on the 1979 Local Bodies Ordinance draft. In Punjab, three different
committees were formed to draft the local government’s law for the province and
none of them have been successful in drafting a law. There is a need for
massive push for the implementation of this constitutional requirement.
The
situation is more complex in Sindh. Representatives from interior Sindh are
highly apprehensive about ethnic economic marginalisation for Sindhi-speakers
in the revived local governments system whereby they may lose their economic
prospects to work and prosper in Karachi and Hyderabad. Such concerns are not
new in history. Malays had similar concerns about the Chinese economic
superiority in Malaysia. Mahatir, however, brilliantly resolved a potential
ethnic economic conflict turning into political violence and retarding growth.
This was done by explicitly granting economic rights to Malays and resolving
the potential conflict. A similar way of alleviating Sindh’s grievances need to
be worked out to make local government a just solution for everyone across the
board.
One cannot
emphasise the need for the local governments enough. Not only is it necessary
to fulfil the constitutional requirements, it is also necessary to deal with
disasters, deliver
efficient services and empower women, peasants and workers.
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