Punjab LG law

Local government is a much neglected area in Pakistan. Though most military dictators in the history of Pakistan showed more enthusiasm about local bodies than the politically elected governments, their intent was not to strengthen democracy but to devise a mechanism to entrench and prolong their own rule under the guise of such democracy. The performance of political governments has been even more disappointing in this matter and the PTI-led government is no exception. Just take the example of local bodies in Punjab. First the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Usman Buzdar struck at the root of the system by replacing the Punjab LG law yet another time in May 2019. Before that the PML-N government had struck down the local government laws introduced by Gen Pervez Musharraf, who in his turn had annulled the previous ones, and the list goes back to eternity.

The new local government law that the PTI government passed in May 2019 was introduced in a most unabashed manner. Contrary to the required democratic practice of taking the opposition on board, the PTI decided to bulldoze the law through the Punjab Assembly with its simple majority. A truly democratic party tries to follow the democratic norms and values prevalent in parliamentary democracies, as the PPP led governments had done in 1973 while passing the constitution or later the 18th Amendment. But when it came to local government laws, even the PPP government in Sindh did not bother to engage with the MQM, a major opposition party representing mostly urban Sindh. After the introduction of the Punjab LG law, the Buzdar government not only dissolved the local bodies prematurely but also has been procrastinating on holding new elections for them. In December 2019 we heard from the Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LGCD) secretary that he had directed his officers to start work on implementing the PLG Act 2019; but then a long silence ensued.

When laws are passed with consensus or at least with due deliberation, they are more likely to be implemented smoothly but if it is done in a highhanded manner,the transition from the previous to the new system becomes difficult and unsavoury. The Punjab cabinet had given its approval for the accounts of defunct LGs to remain operational until January 5, 2020 – now it is March. The provincial government in Balochistan had also dispensed with the local bodies even before Punjab in January 2019; whereas the tenure of LGs in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ended in August 2019. In the three provinces where the PTI is in power, the local bodies are dysfunctional at the moment.