Eye of the storm

Pakistan is not prepared for climate change.

The situation in Karachi makes this clear. As global temperatures rise, we can expect to see more severe weather patterns, with torrential rain putting Karachi in the eye of the storm.

Sindh should be exploring the development of infrastructure that can combat what is coming. Instead, Sindh’s infrastructure continues to live in the past. A city home to 15 million people, once this country’s capital, now drowns, quite literally, in the incompetence of its administrators. An indictment of the PPP’s poor performance in Sindh, where it has ruled for a quarter of a decade.

This issue won’t be resolved by forming a special committee comprising of the three major political parties in Sindh. The only solution is the one proposed by the 18^th Amendment: local government.

It is not the job of MNAs and MPAs to fix Karachi’s roads and drainage systems. They are supposed to deliberate on policy and legislation. However, it is their job to oversee and implement a proper local government system in Sindh in accordance with Article 140A of the Constitution.

In that aspect, the Sindh government has failed.

To be sure, the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA) was enacted in 2013, but it gives neither autonomy nor full responsibility to local governments.

Passed without proper consultation amongst political parties or the Election Commission of Pakistan; the SLGA reserves important powers that traditionally should lie with local governments with the province. This includes development. The Karachi Development Authority, for example, is not placed under elected local government control. According to a report by Dr Niaz Murtaza: “In terms of administrative devolution, the SLGA 2013 represents a backward step. Many key functions which the 2001 system had devolved to districts have been re-assigned to the province in the 2013 system, e.g., police, major local development activities, and buildings control.” The SLGA also has provisions, such as section 74, which allow the provincial government to take over any of the functions of the local government. Even local government elections are not free from controversy under the SLGA — the delimitation process of the 2015 elections suffered from rampant gerrymandering.

This was not the intent of the 18^th Amendment. Local bodies should not be slaves to the provinces. No more than the provinces should be slaves to the federal government. Yet, that is the mechanism at play all across the country. According to one report the UNDP believes that: “Local governments around the world are at the forefront of the current Covid-19 crisis, but in Pakistan these institutions are to an extent disconnected from its citizens and saddled with a governance style which is top down, reactive and authoritative.”

The situation in Karachi has become ridiculous from a governance perspective, but equally ridiculous are some of the suggestions being made to fix Karachi’s problems.

Governor rule has been thrown about as a possible solution, even though it is a system of governance that has never been kind to Pakistan. The PTI should be wary of going down this path, both from a legal and a political perspective.

Legally, imposing governor rule in Karachi would be hard to justify under the Constitution. Under Article 234, if the president receives a report from the Governor of Sindh that “a situation has arisen in which the government of the province cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution” then he may mandate the governor to exercise the executive powers of the province. Article 234 can therefore only be implemented if the constitutional machinery of a province has completely failed —there is no indication that this has happened in Sindh. An inept local government system is not sufficient to declare a constitutional crisis, which is what Article 234 is reserved for.

From a political standpoint, while it is true that the PPP has a poor track record when it comes to developing Sindh, the use of Article 234 will solve none of Karachi’s problems. It will undermine two very important things: the concept of federalism that this country has fought so hard to achieve; and, the votes of the people of Sindh.

The PPP may be doing a poor job in Karachi, but that does not justify federal interference in their democratic mandate. Pakistan already has an inglorious history of the Centre interfering in provincial affairs. Surely a democracy as fragile as ours does not need another precedent in this regard.

Long-lasting change in Sindh can only come about by implementing an effective local government system. To achieve this, it is time for the Sindh Assembly to revisit the SLGA and devolve power in the way envisioned by the 18^th Amendment. It is also time for the PTI to start working with the opposition towards this goal. And while Karachi serves as a watershed moment for us to recognise the need for a strong local government in Sindh, we should also realise we need it in every province of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2020.

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