Local governments in Pakistan function [or dysfunction] under their respective provincial frameworks as Article 140-A of the constitution of Pakistan requires each province to establish a local government system. It further stipulates the devolution of political, administrative and financial responsibility to the elected representatives of the local governments.
The political will of the people thus reflected through the 18th Amendment to the constitution had its roots in the Charter of Democracy (CoD) as confirmed by the TORs of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms — the committee shall propose amendments to the Constitution keeping in view the 17th Amendment, CoD and provincial autonomy, to meet the democratic and Islamic aspirations of the people of Pakistan.
The democratic aspirations about the autonomy of local governments ensured through the provisions of the constitution and those of the CoD remain far from realisation even today. The case of Punjab is a precarious one as the province experimented with four provincial laws on the local government system over the past two decades. The Punjab Local Government Ordinance (PLGO) 2001 enjoyed the longest implementation period under the dictatorial regime of General Musharaf whereas the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2013, Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2019, and the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2022 were all legislations of a decade indicating compromised commitment for autonomy and functioning of local governments. As per media reports, another draft of local government legislation is under consideration in the province to further experiment with the already dysfunctional system.
The supervision and monitoring of local governments, rather exercising direct control over them, has been a decades-old phenomenon. Even the Punjab Local Government Ordinance of 1979 granted sweeping powers to the provincial government to control local bodies. The PLGO 2001 was unique in its approach to provincial oversight, as it introduced a formal forum — the Provincial Local Government Commission — to oversee the functioning of local governments.
The commission comprised six members: the minister for local government as chair, two members from the general public (one nominated by the leader of the House and the other by the leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly), two technocrat members selected by the government, and the secretary of the Local Government Department as an ex-officio member.
The commission was mandated to conduct annual and special inspections of local governments, carry out inquiries, audit local governments, resolve disputes between local governments or between any department and a local government, prepare an annual report on the overall performance of local governments, and hold consultative meetings with stakeholders for district-level development planning. More importantly, it had the authority to recommend the removal of nazims upon completing an inquiry, either initiated on its own accord or undertaken at the direction of the province’s chief executive.
The proposed commission could never furnish its performance in accordance with the provisions of the ordinance except for making news about its willingness to remove elected nazims believed to be working against the public interest and political requirements of
the provincial government. Strangely, the subsequent legislations by the province kept the commission alive under the nomenclature of the Punjab Local Government Commission albeit with some changes in the scope of functions.
The PLGA 2013 called for the creation of the Punjab Local Government Commission with increased membership — seven-member commission comprising the minister for local government, three members of the provincial assembly whereby two would be nominated by the leader of the House and one by the leader of the opposition, two technocrat members including at least one woman nominated by the government, and the secretary of the Local Government Department. The tenure of these members was increased from the previously determined four years to five years. Conduct of social and performance audits of local governments on specific performance indicators through a third party was also made part of the functions of the commission.
The PLGA 2019 increased the number of members of the commission to eleven and reduced their term to four years. This time around, four members of the provincial assembly — two each nominated by the leader of the House and leader of the opposition — were added along with four expert members including one woman. The Act further added the secretary in charge of the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department as a member of the Commission. All provisions on monitoring and supervision of local governments were kept by the Act from the previous legislations except those pertaining to consultations over development planning at the local level.
The PLGA 2022 fell in line with the PLGA 2019 and largely retained its provisions regarding the establishment of the commission and eligibility of its members. However, it did lay extra emphasis on some functions of the commission. For example, Section 160(e) of the Act reads “conduct annual and special inspections of the local governments and submit its reports to the chief minister”. This function is repeated in sub-section (k) of the same section for only the understandable reason of dually emphasising this particular responsibility as one cannot presume it to be a mistake of copying and pasting across a provincial legal document.
Likewise, Section 160(i) requires the commission to submit an annual report on the overall performance of the local governments to the chief minister and the Punjab Assembly. This function is further emphasised in Section 160 (p) which calls for submitting to the chief minister an annual report on the overall performance of the local governments. Here a distinction can be made as in the latter, the Act asks for submission to only the chief minister whereas in the former sub-section, the provincial assembly was also a recipient of the annual report. One wonders if only one provision could have sufficed for this purpose.
Despite the policy experimentation, the Punjab Local Government Commission remains a critical component of the system and rather the only one to provide a somewhat objective yardstick to measure the performance of local governments of the province. However, one is unable to find any public record of the functioning of the commission; the office of the secretary of the commission also does not disclose anything other than the structural composition, functions and membership categories defined by PLGA 2013. The concerns of citizens are threefold: the rationale behind the changing scope, implementation of the performance assessment, and only local governments as the focus of performance measurement.
The practice of treating the local government system as a low-hanging fruit of policy reform needs to be checked. There should be a political consensus over the contours of a vibrant local government system as ordained by the constitution and the system should be allowed to work transparently. Treading the current path will only reinforce the dysfunctionality of the local government system in the face of growing challenges of urbanisation and service delivery.
The writer is a public policy analyst based in Lahore. He can be reached at: hamidmasudgmail.com