What is required is strengthening of administration, not politics at the local level.
RAWALPINDI: Rasul Bakhsh has uncannily proposed what has all along been a dream of British colonists and military dictators alike in his article of November 8 titled “Parties and local politics”. Like all armchair analysts, Mr Rais seems to live in a fantasy world. It is the local government that delivers the goods to the man on the street at his doorstep. The federal government and parliament have no tangible existence for the common man.
What is required is strengthening of administration, not politics at the local level. Gone are the days when the deputy commissioners used to hold periodic conferences to discuss prices, adulteration of articles of food and drink, including flour supplied by mills, and even the number of pye-dogs killed by local councils. I served in the local government for around 13 years before joining the federal government. I, for one, can vouchsafe that politics in Pakistan is a sumptuous adjunct to democracy. About 460 intermarried families of landlords and industrialists will continue to rule Pakistan unless the current taxation system is revamped. Not only current income and profits but also assets, including gifts of the British Raj, should be taxed to make for a more equitable society.
Amjed Jaaved
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2013.
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