People lean towards elected local govts: Survey
Household satisfaction rating for services over the years.
KARACHI:
A slim majority of 10,000 Pakistani households surveyed have said that they prefer a local government system over the current administrative dispensation run by bureaucrats, concluded a national survey that was released on Tuesday.
Union councillors elected under the local government system were easily approachable whereas people hesitate to take their problems to government officials, said the Social Audit of Public Service Delivery 2011-12 report. In Sindh, a little more than half of the 2,640 households said they wanted the local government system.
“Everywhere we went, people asked us one same thing: Who will listen to us,” said lead researcher Fateh Muhammad. “It is exactly the same question we faced in the previous survey.”
Exactly 10,740 households were surveyed across 79 districts in all four provinces. Eight universities along with the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) helped gather the data.
Sixty per cent of the 10,000 households said that they were interested in a return to local government and 80% said they would vote if elections were held.
The report was released at a time when Sindh’s main coalition partners have yet to agree on which local government system to use. The Pakistan Peoples Party has leaned towards the 1979 system of commissioners while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has generally preferred the 2001 system created by Pervez Musharraf. The report suggested taking the best of the two. As local government elections have not been held since 2009 the pressure is on as the Sindh High Court has ordered for the government to arrange for polls in 90 days.
Households surveyed in Sindh said that over the last two years there has been deterioration in education, roads, garbage and sewage disposal and the provision of drinking water quality. This basically marks the period after the local government system expired in 2009.
Contrary to general perception, terrorism and security concerns turned out to be least worrying for a vast majority. Unemployment, inflation and load shedding repeatedly came up as the biggest problems. “Less than one per cent of all [people who took part in the survey] indicated that terrorism was the main problem faced by their area,” says the 50-page report. But there was a disconnect between the people and the bureaucrats. Government officials had a completely different view. When asked about the biggest problem in their jurisdictions, the district officers and administrators always cited security concerns, explained Hassan Akbar, the programme coordinator.
In Sindh, only 40% of the houses surveyed said they had a sense of protection from the police.
Researchers said the survey also broke the myth that every other child in rural Pakistan was going to a religious seminary for education. The number of children attending madrassas turned out to be statistically insignificant.
Most of the people continued to say they were unhappy with the state of education - but the report noted that this does mean schools are not available. Almost 51 per cent of women surveyed were illiterate compared to 28 per cent of the men.
Similarly, while people are unhappy about health care, around 97 per cent were satisfied with the government’s campaign to vaccinate children under 5 years.
The event marking the launch of the report was marred by some dissenting voices. People complained that the survey was politicised by insisting too much on bringing back the local government system.
Activists questioned how 55 per cent of the people could be satisfied with the state of education when thousands of ghost schools existed in Sindh and teachers did not attend classes.
But UNDP’s assistant country director Azhar Saeed Malik said it was important for the local government system to continue. “It’s in the constitution that administrative and financial powers are devolved to the grassroots level,” he said. People were not concerned about what type of local government system was introduced. “They just want local elected representatives who they can easily approach with their problems.”
The survey showed that people have a sense of ownership in a local government system as compared to an administrative set-up. But the local government system is high on corruption, the report admitted.
For his part, Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro said that since it was introduced in 2001, the local government system had had enough time to prove its worth. “This system remained for eight years but people are still dissatisfied with public services. What does that mean?” he asked.
Without saying if the LG system was better, he said public representatives remain available to the public.
Local election was getting delayed because work on updating the electoral list was still in process, he said. “We need to have new electoral rolls for representing the real picture.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2012.
A slim majority of 10,000 Pakistani households surveyed have said that they prefer a local government system over the current administrative dispensation run by bureaucrats, concluded a national survey that was released on Tuesday.
Union councillors elected under the local government system were easily approachable whereas people hesitate to take their problems to government officials, said the Social Audit of Public Service Delivery 2011-12 report. In Sindh, a little more than half of the 2,640 households said they wanted the local government system.
“Everywhere we went, people asked us one same thing: Who will listen to us,” said lead researcher Fateh Muhammad. “It is exactly the same question we faced in the previous survey.”
Exactly 10,740 households were surveyed across 79 districts in all four provinces. Eight universities along with the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) helped gather the data.
Sixty per cent of the 10,000 households said that they were interested in a return to local government and 80% said they would vote if elections were held.
The report was released at a time when Sindh’s main coalition partners have yet to agree on which local government system to use. The Pakistan Peoples Party has leaned towards the 1979 system of commissioners while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has generally preferred the 2001 system created by Pervez Musharraf. The report suggested taking the best of the two. As local government elections have not been held since 2009 the pressure is on as the Sindh High Court has ordered for the government to arrange for polls in 90 days.
Households surveyed in Sindh said that over the last two years there has been deterioration in education, roads, garbage and sewage disposal and the provision of drinking water quality. This basically marks the period after the local government system expired in 2009.
Contrary to general perception, terrorism and security concerns turned out to be least worrying for a vast majority. Unemployment, inflation and load shedding repeatedly came up as the biggest problems. “Less than one per cent of all [people who took part in the survey] indicated that terrorism was the main problem faced by their area,” says the 50-page report. But there was a disconnect between the people and the bureaucrats. Government officials had a completely different view. When asked about the biggest problem in their jurisdictions, the district officers and administrators always cited security concerns, explained Hassan Akbar, the programme coordinator.
In Sindh, only 40% of the houses surveyed said they had a sense of protection from the police.
Researchers said the survey also broke the myth that every other child in rural Pakistan was going to a religious seminary for education. The number of children attending madrassas turned out to be statistically insignificant.
Most of the people continued to say they were unhappy with the state of education - but the report noted that this does mean schools are not available. Almost 51 per cent of women surveyed were illiterate compared to 28 per cent of the men.
Similarly, while people are unhappy about health care, around 97 per cent were satisfied with the government’s campaign to vaccinate children under 5 years.
The event marking the launch of the report was marred by some dissenting voices. People complained that the survey was politicised by insisting too much on bringing back the local government system.
Activists questioned how 55 per cent of the people could be satisfied with the state of education when thousands of ghost schools existed in Sindh and teachers did not attend classes.
But UNDP’s assistant country director Azhar Saeed Malik said it was important for the local government system to continue. “It’s in the constitution that administrative and financial powers are devolved to the grassroots level,” he said. People were not concerned about what type of local government system was introduced. “They just want local elected representatives who they can easily approach with their problems.”
The survey showed that people have a sense of ownership in a local government system as compared to an administrative set-up. But the local government system is high on corruption, the report admitted.
For his part, Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro said that since it was introduced in 2001, the local government system had had enough time to prove its worth. “This system remained for eight years but people are still dissatisfied with public services. What does that mean?” he asked.
Without saying if the LG system was better, he said public representatives remain available to the public.
Local election was getting delayed because work on updating the electoral list was still in process, he said. “We need to have new electoral rolls for representing the real picture.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2012.