Exceptionally high floods in River Chenab and Jehlum have largely affected parts of Pakistan, leaving tens of thousands of people helpless in tents and on the main roads of cities and towns.
For help, people are dependent on the visits of prime minister, respective chief ministers, and members of national and provincial legislative assemblies.
These poor masses expect the elected people to help them. They do not know that, ideally, these members are meant to legislate and empower the third tier of governance -- the local government.
The lack of willingness of mainstream political parties is one of the major hurdles in holding local government elections.
Pakistan, with a federal system, and later devolution of power to the provinces through the 18th Amendment, has not moved towards the third tier of governance due mainly to the political parties that fear losing power and emergence of opposition groups in the basic set-up of democracy.
Our history of military dictatorships and their preference for local governments is perhaps one strong reason why political parties are mistrustful of this tier.
The situation on the ground is that local body elections have been held only in some parts of Balochistan after May 2013 general elections. Provinces were responsible for holding the local government elections after January 2009 when union councils completed their term.
The manifestos of all political parties promise measures to introduce the system of local democracy but there is no work on the ground yet. Centralisation of power has been the most crucial issue because legislators want to keep their hold on all infrastructural developments and local administrations.
No one seems sure as to when the local bodies elections will be held. "We are not against local bodies polls. We believe in this third tier but we also know that we cannot hold these elections unless new demarcations and delimitations of the union councils are carried out which are important in view of population increase and changes in demography of major cities and town," says Rana Sanaullah, a former local governments minister and a senior representative of Pakistan Muslim League in Punjab. He denies the impression that his party is against decentralisation of power but he has ‘technical’ justifications for delaying the polls.
In Sindh, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has been urging the ruling Pakistan People’s Party to hold local body polls. The latter seems reluctant because it fears losing its political and administrative grip in the cities where there are high chances of other parties’ victory if the local bodies elections are held.
"The PPP is tactfully delaying local government elections for certain reasons because it does not want to lose power," says Haider Abbas Rizvi, a senior leader of MQM. "We are the only party in the country that wants local government elections to be held and believes in real devolution of power."
He says decentralisation of power at the grassroot level leads to better provision of social and civic services, restoration of real democracy in the country and a more active and beneficial interaction and participation of the masses in all tiers of governance.
In March 2014, the Supreme Court of Pakistan in a verdict on a case on local bodies’ issues observed that the PPP and PML-N do not want to hold local bodies’ polls in Sindh and Punjab respectively.
The then chief justice of Pakistan, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, stated: "It is an interesting aspect of our democratic governments that the ruling party, on becoming the opposition party, talks of democracy but forgets democracy after coming to power. Provincial governments don’t want cake sharing by holding local bodies’ polls. Prima facie, sections 7 and 17 of Local Bodies (LB) laws enacted by Punjab government run counter to each other. The lawmakers have not made distinct the powers of election commission and governments on holding the local bodies’ elections."
Another SC judge, Khilji Arif Hussain, also said, "The PML-N and PPP don’t want to hold local bodies polls in Punjab and Sindh respectively because they fear this way they will have to devolve powers at the grassroots level."
Article 29 of the Charter of Democracy, signed between PPP and PML-N, states "local bodies elections will be held within three months of the holding of general elections."
Both the PPP and PML-N ruled for five years, one at the centre and Sindh, and the other in Punjab. Neither of the two held elections during their tenure. After the 2013 elections, the PML-N controls both centre and the Punjab and the PPP holds sway in Sindh.
Interestingly, another emerging political force in the country, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which has also moved court on delay in local government elections in other provinces, has not managed the polls in its province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwah, apparently, due to the "upcoming reforms and new biometric system" needed to "ensure fairness and transparency" in the system.
"The delay is due to reforms which are on the cards. We want to hold free, fair, and exemplary local government elections on which no one can point a finger," says Murad Saeed, a sitting Member National Assembly from PTI, KP.
Interestingly, the party chief, Imran Khan, made a firm commitment in April 2013 to hold local government elections in 90 days after coming into power. Supreme Court has also expressed its displeasure with the KP government for its failure to give a specific date for the local bodies elections.
Development funds to the members of national and provincial assemblies are also cited as one of the reasons for opposition to the third tier of governance in Pakistan. Under various development heads, members of provincial and national assemblies are given huge funds and financial awards to spend in their constituency.
Sharjeel Memon, information minister, PPP Sindh government, asks "Who says we don’t want local government system to come in place? We definitely want to do it but we want to first remove some legal confusion. We want revised delimitation and demarcations of union council constituencies but we are stuck due to a high court verdict which needs clarity."
He says in a judgment on a petition, the court has asked the election commission of Pakistan to revise delimitation. "We believe that as a government we have the right to revise delimitations."
He says once the confusion is removed, the government will revise demarcations and will hold local bodies polls. "No one can deny the importance of this third tired which empowers people."