View from the bottom: Will local govt change the system, Sukkur residents wonder

SUKKUR:

If you ask Prakash, it makes no difference whether the upcoming local government elections are held on a party basis, or otherwise. A teacher at a private school, he feels that the local government system has never really benefitted the common man.

“Whether they contest the elections on party basis or in their individual capacities, the candidates have always prioritised their party’s interests above all else,” he remarked. He was of the opinion that the candidates were merely interested in the opportunities to embezzle the development funds they would receive if elected. “Today, every Pakistani claims to be patriotic. The irony is that their deeds do not match their claims,” he lamented.



Muhammad Qasim, who runs a pan shop, vows to vote for the person who shows commitment to serve the masses. “Sukkur is faced by a multitude of problems - choked sewerage drains, a failing sanitation system and lack of potable drinking water to name a few.” Under these circumstances, Qasim does not care whether the elections are conducted on a party basis or not. “The elected representative must deliver. He must address our problems which is the whole point of the system,” he asserted.

For Mai Ameeran Mirani, who works as a maid in several houses to make ends meet, the whole exercise is a farce. “I have seen many general and local government elections, but the fate of the poor never changes,” she lamented. She went on to explain that people were divided into communities whose elders decided who the members of their community would vote for. “In short, the whole community is sold to the candidate by its elders.” It is time that the masses took things into their own hands, she stressed. “No rich person will change things for us. Only the poor are aware of the problems they face. Only they can fix them.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2013.