Asad Umar suggests ‘one law, one regulator formula’ for Karachi LG

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has suggested a “one law and one regulator” formula for the local government of Karachi.

On the second day of the 13th edition of the Karachi Literature Festival’s (KLF), addressing a session titled ‘Empowered Local Governments: Essential for Strengthening Democracy’, Umar said such a formula was also being implemented in Islamabad, and all the land-owning agencies and housing societies had to be under one regulator.

After the session’s nominated moderator, journalist Mubashir Zaidi, couldn’t be found anywhere, journalist Mazhar Abbas, who was one of the panelists, moderated the session. The second panelist was advocate Salahuddin Ahmed, who fought on behalf of the MQMP’s petition in the Supreme Court for the empowerment of the local government.

“Why democracy couldn’t strengthen its roots in Pakistan?” Asked Abbas. It was due to doctorial form of government which never let democracy flourish, he answered.

“One cannot rule out weaknesses of political parties,” he said, adding that there was no democracy within political parties and they never made local bodies their strong pillars, which resulted in weakening of our politics nurseries.

“The more powerful and independent local bodies are, the stronger democracy and political parties will become,” Abbas said, adding that those politicians who came from grassroots level exhibit political maturity.

He asked Umar if his vision of the time when he entered politics had been fulfilled. Umer dodged the question, saying that the in the last government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the local government system was introduced, which was better than the previous one, but there was still a lot of room for improvement.

The federal planning minister further stated that the constitution’s article 140-A is clear about local government formation and there’s no choice in it. Pakistan is a multi-ethnic society, there’s kinship networks, the trust level within kinship is high and across it, it is very weak. Had we created many provinces when Pakistan was formed, every kinship would have gotten their spaces, he said, adding that there was a provision in the constitution for the formation of new provinces, and they would strive for the formation of Southern Punjab province.

Starting from KP, he explained that in Hazara Division the primary language of most of their population is Hindku, in the Peshawar valley the majority people speak Peshawari, in Punjab there are clear cultural distinctions in three parts and there’s a feeling of deprivation. Even in Balochistan there are clear linguistic lines and in Sindh there’s no need to mention the deprivation of the people of Karachi, he remarked. “In my view, the solution is nothing but implementation of the constitution’s Article 140-A in letter and spirit,” he said.

The Karachi’s mayor, even if empowered, Abbas pointed out, would have its say over 34 per cent of the city. There are multiple civic agencies. “From Jinnah International Airport towards Sharea Faisal, you drive on a KMC road and in the opposite direction you drive on a cantonment board’s road,” he said. When we talk about empowered local bodies, how much empowerment are we talking about? Do we plan to bring all agencies under local government?

Ahmed explained Abbas’s point technically. The place where the KFL is happening, he said, if a building is to be constructed in that area, permission has to be sought from the Karachi Port Trust. Five kilometres further, permission has to be sought from the Clifton Cantonment Board and then five kilometres in another direction, the Sindh Building Control Authority’s domain lies. Systems, he said, cannot run with such territorial fragmentation.

Secondly, he said, there’s subject matter fragmentation in the port city. The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) for that matter decides whether the gutter line in an area can cater to 1,000 people or a few hundred, but in the same area a building or a housing society of tens of thousands of people springs up with permission from the SBCA, and not the KWSB. These contradictions, he stressed, need to be resolved.

Asad Umar gave the example of what the federal government is opting for to handle such territorial fragmentation of powers in Islamabad. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has its control over half of the city, the rest, he said, is controlled by very powerful societies.

The law that is being passed for this is of a single regulator. “One law and one regulator for the entire city,” he said, adding that the CDA’s role will be that of a regulator, the rest of the powers will rest with the mayor, except of the police. Even private housing societies will operate under one law and one regulator.

Ahmed explained that our legislative system comes from British colonial powers, in which there is a little de-concentration of power by making the deputy commissioner powerful. The ultimate power used to rest with the viceroy or governor general. “In the colonial setup, the motive is not efficiency, but concentration of power over the state,” he explained. The big political parties other than the Pakistan Peoples Party want devolution of power in Sindh, but, he said, they have a different stance on a local government in Punjab, where the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf resorted to dissolve the local government.

It will be 15 years to the continuity of democracy, but has it delivered, asked Abbas. Asad Umar in return asked if our democratic system is as per the constitution. “The answer is no. No one is ready to devolve the power.”

He stressed that the provincial government should not have the powers to dissolve the local governments.