Importance of local government

July 1 was rightly observed as provincial autonomy day. It took governance many steps closer to the governed. Even very high rates of economic growth fail to reach the poor if the service delivery falls upon a distant government. Hence the global trend towards decentralisation and devolution. Our provinces are large and there is a case for more of them, as the provincial capitals are too distant from vast regions. The right number of provinces would, however, still require devolution from the provinces to local governments. All politics, it is said, is local. That is why one sees MNAs and MPAs more concerned with constituency funds and project locations than about national economic policies or provincial development strategies. Parliamentary democracy is strengthened if local issues are addressed at the provincial level by devolving enough power and authority. Basic services and civic amenities affecting the people directly can be delivered and monitored effectively only at the local level.

Unfortunately, local governance in Pakistan has become something akin to the proverbial baby thrown out with the bath water whenever a civilian set-up replaces a military set-up. The latter uses it as a non-threatening democratic facade and the former sees it as a relic of the usurpers. In all three cases of military rule, but most blatantly during the Musharraf period, provincial powers were taken away and assigned to local governments by the federal government without seeking a political consensus in the provinces. Without devolving what was due to the provinces, the federal government started to treat the local government as the third tier of the government.

The Eighteenth Amendment has empowered the provinces first. It is now the provinces’ turn to empower the local level. Article 140A inserted in 2002, which has been retained as Article 140A(1), 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.” Clause (2) has also been inserted: “Elections to the local governments shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan.” This will improve the transparency of local elections by the independent Election Commission provided under the Eighteenth Amendment. A new article, 170 (2), ensures independent audit of local governments by the constitutionally appointed auditor-general.

The constitutional parameters of the local governance are thus quite clear. There is no room for debate on a third tier of government. There is the Federal List and the rest falls in the provincial domain. Local governments are a purely provincial matter, to be established under a provincial law, with elections and audit organised by independent bodies. However, the situation on the ground is that the provinces are acting to weaken rather than strengthen local governments, both in terms of functions and financial resources. Changes being proposed in the 2001 law are designed to achieve narrow party-political interests rather than effective service delivery to citizens. District councils have been suspended. Commissioners have replaced elected nazims and DCOs have been acting like the erstwhile deputy commissioners. During the unprecedented flood last year, these bureaucratic arrangements utterly failed to provide immediate response on the ground. The provinces say these arrangements are transitional until the next elections. Why don’t we have local rather than midterm national elections at the fag end? Let’s celebrate the occasion as local autonomy day.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2011.