Deja vu time — again

Tinkering with local government rarely meets with the approval of everybody, and Sindh has once again seen major adjustments to the way it is governed — or not governed. A dual system of governance has once again been introduced, which essentially increases bureaucratic control in rural areas, but exempts Karachi and the other major urban conurbations. Decisions taken at the chief minister’s house on October 1 means that all municipal bodies in Sindh, with the exception of Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana, are now under the control of their respective commissioners and deputy commissioners. The reason given for the change is that transparency and fiscal discipline will be better maintained — which remains to be seen in practice. There will be little or no change in Karachi because there are no district councils or municipal committees.

The underlying reason for the change was the discovery of what are described as “massive” financial irregularities across all departments. The chief minister had warned bureaucrats to clean up their act on a number of occasions, they failed to do so and the hammer dropped. Even deeper beneath the surface lies the failure to hold local government elections and devolve power to elected representatives at the grass roots. This is as much the need of the hour in the cities as the countryside, but the mainstream political parties have eschewed such a move .

The opposition parties in Sindh have taken a dim view of these latest developments, saying it was an attempt to divide Sindh into two administrative units — which is difficult to deny — and also questioned whether the chief minister had the authority to make the changes without supporting legislation. That the ‘new’ system is divisive is undeniable. A similar system introduced by the PPP in the past was a dismal failure, leading to its withdrawal. Ideally, a uniform local government system, manned by elected representatives, should apply to both rural and urban areas, but political jiggery-pokery will ensure the persistence of the divide-and-rule model.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2014.

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