Despite repeated instructions from courts at various levels, local government issues in most provinces of Pakistan remain unresolved. Take, for example, Punjab and Sindh where the opposition parties have raised objections to the laws governing local governments. At a recent meeting of the treasury-opposition local government special committee in Lahore, the opposition representatives expressed their displeasure at the draft law of the Punjab Local Government Act. The PTI government in Punjab has suggested two tiers – neighbourhood council or local council, and district council for urban areas. The opposition is demanding at least four tiers from union and neighbourhood councils to municipal committees at the tehsil and district levels. Another bone of contention in Punjab appears to be the PTI’s insistence that hilly areas should have union councils even with less than 10,000 population. The opposition is suggesting that without a clear definition of ‘hilly areas’ in the law, any such provision would create even more confusion; it is also suggesting that desert areas should also be included in the same category of hilly areas as they too have a scattered population. It is time these discussions came to a fruitful conclusion as endless arguments about LGs in Punjab are just procrastinating long overdue local bodies elections in the province. The opposition must come up with its suggestions in writing so that they graduate from a culture of conversation to a culture of composition. The governing party must consider alternative proposals before passing any laws in this regard.
Looking at the LG situation in Sindh you find an even more puzzling rigmarole between the provincial government and the opposition. Though on Jan 6, 2022 City Administrator Murtaza Wahab acknowledged that the Sindh Local Government Act 2021 was not a ‘sacred document’ that could not be changed, the Sindh government needs to move in a positive direction. It must establish constructive contact with all political parties including the Jamaat-e-Islami, MQM, ANP, JUP, and other groups for improvement in the LG law. The Sindh government is claiming that the Karachi mayor has been given more powers in the new LG law as the mayor would be in charge of 10 to 12 departments, but the opposition contends that the LG powers have been drastically curtailed. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the situation is slightly better as the first phase of the LG elections has taken place; the Election Commission of Pakistan decided on Jan 5, 2022 to deploy army personnel with the local police at polling stations in the second phase. This aims to avoid mismanagement at polling stations that the first phase experienced. Essentially, the KP government failed to fulfil its responsibility of providing security to the polling stations. The first phase of LG polls saw 17 districts go through the exercise and now the ECP has fixed March 27 for the next phase in the remaining 18 districts.
In Balochistan, the situation is a bit tricky; the Balochistan governor called on Prime Minister Imran Khan on Jan 4 and the PM is reported to have directed the governor to start preparations for holding local bodies elections in the province. In the presence of an elected and functioning provincial government, such instructions to the governor appear to be puzzling. In November the ECP had ordered the Balochistan government to provide all details for local government elections in the province within two weeks including the details of rural and urban local councils with maps and notifications. Since the ECP needs these details to begin delimitation of local council, the delay in such provision is hampering the planning for elections. In short, all provincial governments have displayed an irresponsible attitude towards LG polls and this is no good news for democracy at the local level.