The essence of democracy

Considered the essence of democracy, local governments are meant to ensure democratic and accountable governance, besides delivery of economic, social and environmental services at the grassroots level. While such governments have been running efficiently and effectively in a large part of the world, unfortunately such is not the case in Pakistan. Local governments here have historically been treated as a tool by rulers at the top to serve their vested interests. While the dictators applied this tool to acquire political legitimacy and undermine political parties, the civilian rulers used it to maintain their political clout and out-maneuver their rivals — in sheer disregard for this basic tier of democracy.

That Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to restructure the local government system in the country speaks of his vision to work at the roots in order to lay the foundation of true democracy in the country. The PM has constituted a committee to propose, within a week, a new local government structure which will be presented before the provincial assemblies to initiate the necessary legislation process within a month. The PM intends to enforce the new law in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — the provinces where his PTI is in power — forthwith, besides asking Sindh and Balochistan to follow suit. However, the initial response from the PPP, which governs Sindh, is not so welcoming. Senior leader Khursheed Shah claims that the prevailing local government system is working efficiently in Sindh province.

Imran Khan has always spoken of the K-P’s local government system with pride and it looks as if the new local government structure will be a modified form of the same. The new system, though, must ensure true devolution of powers to local tiers of government; make funds available with local representatives for local-level projects; have inbuilt checks and balances; maintain balance of power between the respective government officers and the heads of the various local government tiers.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2018.

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