The elusive goal of devolving power
The mid-September deadline set by the Supreme Court for holding local bodies elections has passed.
The writer is a development consultant and a PhD student at the University of Melbourne syed.ali@tribune.com.pk
Devolving power down to lower levels is widely considered as the means of making governance more transparent, effective and transparent. Our democratic governments, however, are not finding it easy to undertake devolution of power down to the local government level. The mid-September deadline set by the Supreme Court for holding local bodies elections has passed and it is unclear when the constitutionally required polls will be held.
Pakistan’s last experiment with devolution was undertaken when Musharraf had promulgated the Local Government Ordinance (LGO) 2001. Many donor agencies had also funneled enormous amounts of funds into the local government system put in place by Musharraf. However, since devolution only took place from the provincial to the district governments and political parties were not allowed to participate in elections, the local government system was criticised for aiming to consolidate authoritarian rule by an unelected military government.
According to the Eighteenth Amendment, passed under the PPP government in 2010, local governments have become a provincial subject. Therefore, all federating units in the country need to not only pass respective local government laws, but also conduct delimitation and frame rules, before local body elections can be held.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI government is still struggling to unveil what it claims to be a model local government system. While Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provincial governments have passed local government bills, they have still been unable to convince opposition parties to accept the legislation in its present form, particularly in Punjab.
Ironically, the PML-N was adamant to disband the LGO 2001 put in place by Musharraf, yet its own local government system has come under severe criticism for forgetting the promises made in the Charter of Democracy which had committed to making a genuine effort to devolve power to the grass-roots level.
The PML-N is being criticised for formulating a local government system for the Punjab based on the indirect election-cum-selection of local government officials, which, allegedly, would increase corruption and horse-trading. The local government act for Punjab is also criticised for aggravating the divisiveness of rural and urban areas and for reducing women and minority seats in the local bodies. Based on petitions spearheaded by the PPP and PTI, challenging the Punjab Local Government Law 2013, the Lahore High Court has asked the ECP and the Government of Punjab to respond to allegations that the local government act for the province is unconstitutional and against the spirit of democracy.
It is unfortunate that throughout Pakistan’s history, the very system of formulating local governments has been manipulated by various regimes to advance their own agendas. The need for undertaking effective devolution thus remains a pressing concern to further consolidate the democratic tradition.
In order to allow for Pakistan’s transition from a procedural to a substantive form of democracy, it is vital that the current ruling parties in each province think beyond putting in place tokenistic or malleable local governments due to pressure from the Supreme Court. Instead, parties should concede to the principle of allowing people to elect local governments most capable of fulfilling their unfulfilled aspirations.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2013.
Pakistan’s last experiment with devolution was undertaken when Musharraf had promulgated the Local Government Ordinance (LGO) 2001. Many donor agencies had also funneled enormous amounts of funds into the local government system put in place by Musharraf. However, since devolution only took place from the provincial to the district governments and political parties were not allowed to participate in elections, the local government system was criticised for aiming to consolidate authoritarian rule by an unelected military government.
According to the Eighteenth Amendment, passed under the PPP government in 2010, local governments have become a provincial subject. Therefore, all federating units in the country need to not only pass respective local government laws, but also conduct delimitation and frame rules, before local body elections can be held.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI government is still struggling to unveil what it claims to be a model local government system. While Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provincial governments have passed local government bills, they have still been unable to convince opposition parties to accept the legislation in its present form, particularly in Punjab.
Ironically, the PML-N was adamant to disband the LGO 2001 put in place by Musharraf, yet its own local government system has come under severe criticism for forgetting the promises made in the Charter of Democracy which had committed to making a genuine effort to devolve power to the grass-roots level.
The PML-N is being criticised for formulating a local government system for the Punjab based on the indirect election-cum-selection of local government officials, which, allegedly, would increase corruption and horse-trading. The local government act for Punjab is also criticised for aggravating the divisiveness of rural and urban areas and for reducing women and minority seats in the local bodies. Based on petitions spearheaded by the PPP and PTI, challenging the Punjab Local Government Law 2013, the Lahore High Court has asked the ECP and the Government of Punjab to respond to allegations that the local government act for the province is unconstitutional and against the spirit of democracy.
It is unfortunate that throughout Pakistan’s history, the very system of formulating local governments has been manipulated by various regimes to advance their own agendas. The need for undertaking effective devolution thus remains a pressing concern to further consolidate the democratic tradition.
In order to allow for Pakistan’s transition from a procedural to a substantive form of democracy, it is vital that the current ruling parties in each province think beyond putting in place tokenistic or malleable local governments due to pressure from the Supreme Court. Instead, parties should concede to the principle of allowing people to elect local governments most capable of fulfilling their unfulfilled aspirations.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2013.