The importance of devolution

After a long time there was some hope that Karachi would finally have a functioning local government system following the planned elections that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has now postponed – a decision it will review after 15 days. An elected and empowered local government has remained a dream in most provinces in Pakistan and more so in Sindh. Karachi in particular being the largest city of the country and an economic and industrial hub deserves a well-oiled municipal machinery that can solve the problems of Karachi. Unfortunately, the city has remained deprived of its elected and empowered local administration for over a decade now. This recent postponement was the last thing that should have happened to this forsaken city. Though all tiers of government should be playing their respective roles effectively and efficiently, for the direct day-to-day services of a metropolis it is the local government that matters the most. If the third tier of government remains out of place for long, from roads and roundabouts to water and sanitation, all collapse and the denizens of the wretched city have nowhere to turn to. Though one can argue that it has been just two years since the term of the last elected local bodies expired, even before that the local government in place did not have the authority to do much.

The PPP-led Sindh government has been reluctant to empower the third tier. First it made debilitating amendments to the previous LG laws and the new system was shorn of nearly all its powers. Then it kept postponing the elections on one pretext or the other. Even now, the provincial authorities have been writing to the ECP, calling for the third postponement of LG polls – with the ECP finally acquiescing. Putting off the polls for inadequate security is likely to set yet another negative precedent for other provincial governments too. A lack of adequate security personnel is an excuse that can also serve the purpose of other provincial governments especially in Punjab where the PTI leadership is least interested in LG elections.

Punjab is the most populated province with nearly 120 million people, without any elected local government for long. In Punjab the issue is that the provincial government does not want to enact legislation to pave the way for LG polls. The chief election commissioner has warned Punjab to enact the required legislation within a week. Perhaps it would be better in Punjab to hold LG elections under the existing law. It has been nearly a year since the last local government in Punjab ended its term. Punjab and Sindh contain nearly 75 per cent of Pakistan’s population amounting to 180 million people. It is a pity that such a large number of cities and communities do not have representative local administrations. For parties that claim to be different in ideologies and approaches to governance, it is interesting how nearly all of them have developed a certain kind of dislike towards local governments. This attitude needs to change for better democracy in this country and for improved governance at the local level. It is pertinent to recall that in July the ECP did manage to hold the first phase of the local polls in the rest of Sindh just apart from Hyderabad and Karachi. Urban centres do need better than this from the Sindh government. Local government elections should be about bringing power back to the people, something which will require defying the machinations of provincial governments. It is no wonder then that territorial provincial governments have been dilly-dallying over devolution for so long.