New provincial govts and decentralisation

Political parties have equal opportunity to decentralise, initiate local govt system in provinces

LAHORE:

The Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assemblies have become operative after a hiatus of 13 months. Similarly, the National Assembly has become functional after a pause of seven months where a coalition government will assume office.

All mainstream political parties have become successful in forming governments in their respective provinces. The people of Pakistan should welcome these developments.

Alongside this, many political parties are raising hue and cry and questioning the outcome of elections. Either they have been wiped out of their respective assemblies or secured less-than-expected seats.

Their political leaders are heading rallies and staging protests at different important locations, pressing for their rights. However, some losing candidates have initiated a legal battle, which may give a tough time to their opponents.

Political commentators and analysts highlight that the mandate is split among political parties so we cannot expect a stable government in the centre.

Apart from Balochistan, all provincial governments should remain stable as each political party has got a simple majority in its respective province. Now, it depends on the political government how does it perform in its respective province as each government has got an opportunity to show its performance in the next five years.

Keeping in view the tight economic situation, political governments will soon come under pressure. The growing sensationalism through social media will create challenges for them.

Political governments of all provinces have been managing their respective provinces in the last decade. If a government rules the province for a decade, it will create regimentation, which restricts benefits to a handful of people.

Political governments would like to run their provinces in a centralised manner. They will depend on their loyalists in the bureaucracy to run the departments and government-owned companies.

Similarly, cabinet members are selected based on their experience in coordinating with their hand-picked bureaucrats. This combination of ministers and bureaucrats concentrate the benefits among them.

Hence, a small chunk of political representatives and bureaucrats becomes beneficiaries while a large chunk flusters. Social and electronic media have played a significant role in raising the expectations of the youth. The young people like to listen and follow their beloved political leaders. They are not ready to tolerate the views of their opponents.

Read: ‘Serious challenges await new government’

This kind of attitude accentuates polarisation in society. Considering the growing aspirations of the youth, political governments are unable to pacify them.

Taking stock of the situation, there is a need to decentralise the affairs of the government. All political parties have an equal opportunity to decentralise and initiate a local government system in their respective provinces.

Any provincial government can take some time in designing the local government system. In the first phase, the new system could be initiated in a few districts. Then it can be expanded to other districts in the second phase.

The provincial government should try to give operational and financial independence to the local government.

There has been a growing informality of businesses in cities. These businesses such as fruit vendors, food and vegetable peddlers, chips and burgers’ kiosks, etc provide livelihood opportunities to scores of people.

Such kinds of businesses should be registered, supported and facilitated so that they can survive and grow. This can be done by energising the local business facilitation centres through the functional local governments.

In a nutshell, the current centralised provincial administration cannot solve the complex problems faced by a large chunk of people. A remote and unaccountable bureaucracy can design and implement policies which can be beneficial for a small class but these will be costly for the rest.

Let us see which provincial government takes the lead in crafting the local government system, which can address the emerging problems.

The writer is an independent economist who worked at SDSB, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2024.

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