Lessons to learn: Local govt is missing where it matters
The writer is looking for the city government, municipality amid piles of garbage.
The KMC and the city government is missing from action as can be seen in the piles of garbage collecting in the city. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI:
At a recent conference on urban planning in Karachi, the city hosted several experts, including faculty members from Harvard University and representatives of international urban networks. As these experts shared tips on the city’s development, the one institution that should have been the most active and visible participant was conspicuous by its total absence — the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
Their absence highlighted most poignantly and alarmingly the question: Where is our city government?
Garbage lies unattended on the streets for weeks on end and there seems to be a complete shutdown on any development activity that can be attributed to the KMC. The residents are seemingly unaware of this and, if we want an answer, we have to trace a sorry process of steady decline in the capacity and autonomy of local governance in Pakistan where Karachi serves as an especially tortured city.
It is unfortunate that local governments here are essentially viewed as an extension and appendage of the provincial governments, through which some functions are delegated to them.
But, not many people know that in 1884, the Municipal Acts were passed for the Punjab, Bengal and Bombay. Municipal Corporation Karachi was established under the City of Karachi Act in 1933 that was an extension of the decision taken to enact the Bombay Municipal Act that gave special powers to the executives of large cities to run their municipalities.
In 1946, the Municipal Act was passed for Quetta. It was only in 1935 that the provinces had the autonomy to undertake legislation with regard to the local government system. In 1947, the Local Authority Service Act was passed in Sindh, which brought under provincial control key posts under the municipal committees.
It is an anomaly that elected governments at the national and provincial levels have always feared local government as a vibrant ‘political space’ capable of producing a political voice with roots in the common man. Another factor has been frictions between rival political power brokers at the national, provincial and local governance tiers. A critical consideration in this context is the provincial control over flow of funds to the local level. It is common practice to run parallel ‘funding’ and ‘project’ streams not sourcing from local government desires and initiatives but controlled through such non-participatory mechanisms as the ‘special development funds’ allocated to the elected representatives at national levels.
Military governments, on the other hand, have focused at the local governance tier, bypassing the provinces (where political forces find their power centres) and have, thus, created mechanisms and processes for national to local level interfaces. However, contrary to the stated objectives of ‘empowering the grass root governance’, it has been indicated clearly that the prime objective has been to constrain the political space of key political parties, gain a certain level of ‘political legitimacy’ and ‘control’ planning and development, mostly in the large urban centres through such means as ‘special presidential packages’.
In the case of Karachi, the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) was a parallel agency run by technocrats and was in no way accountable to the KMC and hence to the people. Consequently, the people of Karachi, especially the urban poor, had no direct or indirect say in the manner in which their city developed.
Important city-based utilities, such as water, are controlled from the provincial level. The city has control over only about 38 per cent of the city land and is severely constrained in the generation of revenue needed to run a city that figures among the top 10 most populated cities in the world.
The decision-makers are mostly unelected thus further distancing them from the people they serve. Institutions, such as KMC, may be corrupt, lacking the required human resource capacity but the fact remains that in any civilised nation, it is the office of the mayor that acts as the guardian of the city and has the capacity to enforce its writ. In Karachi, we desperately need to resolve the unending political tensions and conflicts and think of the city and its best interest. The residents of the city deserve no less.
The writer is an urban planner and runs a non-profit organisation based in Karachi city focusing on urban sustainability issues. He can be reached at fanwar@sustainableinitiatives.org.pk
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2014.
At a recent conference on urban planning in Karachi, the city hosted several experts, including faculty members from Harvard University and representatives of international urban networks. As these experts shared tips on the city’s development, the one institution that should have been the most active and visible participant was conspicuous by its total absence — the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
Their absence highlighted most poignantly and alarmingly the question: Where is our city government?
Garbage lies unattended on the streets for weeks on end and there seems to be a complete shutdown on any development activity that can be attributed to the KMC. The residents are seemingly unaware of this and, if we want an answer, we have to trace a sorry process of steady decline in the capacity and autonomy of local governance in Pakistan where Karachi serves as an especially tortured city.
It is unfortunate that local governments here are essentially viewed as an extension and appendage of the provincial governments, through which some functions are delegated to them.
But, not many people know that in 1884, the Municipal Acts were passed for the Punjab, Bengal and Bombay. Municipal Corporation Karachi was established under the City of Karachi Act in 1933 that was an extension of the decision taken to enact the Bombay Municipal Act that gave special powers to the executives of large cities to run their municipalities.
In 1946, the Municipal Act was passed for Quetta. It was only in 1935 that the provinces had the autonomy to undertake legislation with regard to the local government system. In 1947, the Local Authority Service Act was passed in Sindh, which brought under provincial control key posts under the municipal committees.
It is an anomaly that elected governments at the national and provincial levels have always feared local government as a vibrant ‘political space’ capable of producing a political voice with roots in the common man. Another factor has been frictions between rival political power brokers at the national, provincial and local governance tiers. A critical consideration in this context is the provincial control over flow of funds to the local level. It is common practice to run parallel ‘funding’ and ‘project’ streams not sourcing from local government desires and initiatives but controlled through such non-participatory mechanisms as the ‘special development funds’ allocated to the elected representatives at national levels.
Military governments, on the other hand, have focused at the local governance tier, bypassing the provinces (where political forces find their power centres) and have, thus, created mechanisms and processes for national to local level interfaces. However, contrary to the stated objectives of ‘empowering the grass root governance’, it has been indicated clearly that the prime objective has been to constrain the political space of key political parties, gain a certain level of ‘political legitimacy’ and ‘control’ planning and development, mostly in the large urban centres through such means as ‘special presidential packages’.
In the case of Karachi, the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) was a parallel agency run by technocrats and was in no way accountable to the KMC and hence to the people. Consequently, the people of Karachi, especially the urban poor, had no direct or indirect say in the manner in which their city developed.
Important city-based utilities, such as water, are controlled from the provincial level. The city has control over only about 38 per cent of the city land and is severely constrained in the generation of revenue needed to run a city that figures among the top 10 most populated cities in the world.
The decision-makers are mostly unelected thus further distancing them from the people they serve. Institutions, such as KMC, may be corrupt, lacking the required human resource capacity but the fact remains that in any civilised nation, it is the office of the mayor that acts as the guardian of the city and has the capacity to enforce its writ. In Karachi, we desperately need to resolve the unending political tensions and conflicts and think of the city and its best interest. The residents of the city deserve no less.
The writer is an urban planner and runs a non-profit organisation based in Karachi city focusing on urban sustainability issues. He can be reached at fanwar@sustainableinitiatives.org.pk
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2014.