Since 2005…

The process of holding local government elections in Pakistan has covered some ground but it still has a long way to go. Here’s a roundup of the situation on ground since the last local government elections

Since 2005…

The local government system, called the third tier of governance in Pakistan and the first tier in many other countries for the importance it holds, does not exist in Pakistan at the moment. The last time local governments were formed in Pakistan was in 2005 when General (retd) Pervez Musharraf was in power.

That local government completed its tenure in early 2009 when the PPP government had already come into power at the centre. The PPP government completed its five years but did not take interest in holding local government elections.

Governments in the provinces kept making excuses for not holding these elections. The most commonly cited excuse was that they could not hold elections due to poor law and order situation in the country.

The situation did not change much with a change in government in 2013 when the PML-N came into power. By that time the responsibility of holding local government elections had shifted to the provinces. However, the subject of local government assumed importance when the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) under then Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took up the matter and started asserting itself.

The apex court gave repeated deadlines to the federal and local governments on holding elections and completing related procedures without delay. It also gave a final deadline to the provincial governments to hold local government elections by November, 2014. Resultantly, things started moving in the direction but there were several hiccups and deadlocks on the way.

Now the situation on the ground is that only one province -- Balochistan -- has been successful in holding local government elections.

Elections in Balochistan are also incomplete in the sense that their final phase is not complete yet and mayors, deputy mayors, etc, have not been elected yet. There is a deadlock over the procedure announced for their selection and the court has given a stay order in this regard. Thousands of councillors have been elected since December last but they cannot function due to this deadlock.

"Though the situation is far from ideal there are some developments which should be appreciated," says Anwar Hussain, Director Local Councils Association of the Punjab-Pakistan (LCAP Pakistan). LCAP is a non-government body which works with the Punjab government and the federal government on local governments and has former local government functionaries as its members.

Hussain says it is an achievement that all the four provinces have formulated their own local government laws, though the functions, structures, procedures for elections, etc, are different for different provinces. He says "the willingness shown by the provinces to hold these polls was also a welcome development, especially in an environment where they were once not even willing to talk about them. They could have gone ahead with the elections, if their election plans and schemes would not have been challenged in courts."

Anwar, who is also a European Union (EU) ambassador on local governments for Asia Pacific region, tells TNS it is encouraging that people are more aware and they challenge matters they find objectionable. "There were a large number of applications and petitions filed by people who wanted elections to be held under Article 140 A of the Constitution of Pakistan. This article talks about empowering local governments in a true sense. It says: ‘Each Province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative, and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments.’"

On local government elections in Punjab and Sindh, Hussain says they were delayed when the respective high courts declared the new delimitations null and avoid. "There were allegations of gerrymandering against the two governments, which the complainants, including PTI in Punjab and MQM in Sindh, had brought it to the notice of the court. Besides, the Lahore High Court (LHC) also ordered the Punjab government to drop the idea of holding elections on non-party basis and go for elections on party basis."

The situation now is that courts have asked the election commission to carry out the delimitation exercise afresh so that elections could be held. Earlier, these were done by DCOs and deputy commissioner. There is no development as the election commission lacks the capacity and staff to go ahead with this exercise and also complains about non-cooperation by the provinces.

The Sindh Election Commissioner, S. M. Tariq, has recently complained that the Sindh government neither has revised the law on delimitations and nor has passed on this authority to them. So, elections cannot be held in these two provinces till this process is complete.

Sindh Information Minister, Sharjeel Memon, on the other had, holds the court responsible for delays in the holding of local government elections by cancelling delimitations. Another confusion which is yet to be cleared is that the Sindh government has introduced a panel system where voters will cast votes for panels of candidates and not individuals. There is confusion on how the independents will be able to contest elections.

The KPK government claims to be the most responsive in terms of holding local government elections. It blames the election commission for causing delay in holding of elections. "We have written a letter to the election commission to make arrangements for holding elections with the help of electronic biometric machines but they are reluctant to do that," says a senior PTI leader. He wants to remain unidentified, saying party leaders are not allowed to talk to Jang Group.

He says the ECP has not cooperated in this regard and has declared voting under biometric system a far-fetched idea in Pakistan. The ECP says these machines get stuck quite often and there is a lack of expertise in the country to operate. Around 50,000 machines will be required for these elections in the whole province.

The ECP, he says, has also declared that it is not even possible to carry out this exercise at the pilot level. The commission says it needs a lot of time to import these machines, train manpower to operate, and hold trials.

Salman Abid, Regional Head, Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO), believes the pace of development on local governments is slow as there is no pressure of courts on the government to complete deadlines and nobody is following on them. "The civil society has formed working groups but all they can do is create awareness. Getting things implemented is not their domain."

Abid says it is not true that local governments are not there at all. In fact, he says, they are partially there and the government employees, such as Tehsil Municipal Officers (TMOs), secretaries of union councils, etc, are running the affairs of local governments. "Only the elected representatives of the people have been removed from the matrix."

Citing the example of Punjab, he says, such arrangements suit the provincial governments that try to exert their control over this tier. In Punjab, the PML-N has appointed its coordinators in all the 3,500 union councils. The coordinators call the shots and coordinate with different government departments.

"Had there been local government elections, these 3,500 union councils would have had representation from different political parties and some independent candidates would also have been in charge," he says.

Since 2005…