It is time to take suo-motu notice of the Sindh government’s ill-intentions and restore local government powers
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: The chief justice of Pakistan was speaking for every Pakistani when he recently questioned politicians about the function of the government, when every other issue has to be investigated and looked after by the judiciary. For example, take the case of the local governments (LG) elections — the democratically elected provincial governments tried their best during the last three years not to hold the LG elections and kept running municipal affairs through the bureaucracy and ministerial cronies. Finally, it was the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) who forced provincial governments to hold LG elections, which started a series of excuses to defer the elections — constituency demarcations, electoral lists, amending LG laws, and what not.
The LG elections in Sindh were held in December 2015; we are now in April, without any local government in place. Why? Because the government went on to change the procedure for mayor election by a ‘show of hands’, instead of a ‘secret ballot’. The SC was spot on when it commented on the possible difference in the outcome of an election by a show of hands versus secret ballots. One may question the Sindh government’s intentions when it kept amending the LG ordinance in the last few years. The answer is simple: to strip the incoming mayors of any administrative and financial powers. Though the SC has recently ordered to hold the mayor and deputy mayor elections by secret ballot, whoever is elected as Karachi mayor is going to be an office showpiece. The Sindh government has already encroached upon all of the mayor’s powers by amending the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2013. Solid waste management, the Karachi Water and Sewage Board, the Karachi Building Control Authority and many more mayoral powers — have all gone. The remaining powers — education, health and local taxes — have been transferred to district municipal committees. One may presume that was not the intention of the SC when it forced provincial governments to hold LG elections in the first place — to have powerless mayors just to fulfil constitutional requirements in the name of a third tier of government. The SC is requested to see what is going on in Sindh. It is time to take suo-motu notice of the Sindh government’s ill-intentions and restore LG powers per clause 140A of the Constitution. When will our politicians come out of the ‘one-unit’ mentality?
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2016.
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