The half-hearted and partial restoration of local government institutions in the Punjab on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and an allocation of Rs 26.63 billion for local government/communities in the Punjab budget cast doubts about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s intent to strengthen local governments. Most of the local government representatives do not have offices to work from. This indicates that the local government system will remain ignored by yet another elected government.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, in many speeches before elections in 2013 and 2018, had pledged that development funds would not be given to the members of National and Provincial Assemblies as their constitutional role was limited to legislation. He was of the view that the local governments should be strengthened in Pakistan and the local governments should be given development funds as it was their mandate. Instead, the PTI government in the Punjab suspended the existing local government system. The last elections in the Punjab were held phase-wise in 2015 and 2016. The local governments were formed on January 1, 2017 for a five-year term that would end on December 31, 2021. The local governments that were elected under the Punjab Local Government Act 2013 were dissolved on May 3, 2019. In the PLGA 2019, the term of local governments was reduced to four years.

However, some PML-N leaders filed a petition in the Supreme Court that worked for them as a three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) in March 2021 directed the restoration of local governments in the Punjab. Following the orders, when the local government officials reached their offices, the administrator refused to hand over charge. “We filed a petition for contempt of court that also worked and the government assured the court of restoration of the local governments,” says Col Mubashir (retired), the Lahore mayor.

But the elected local government officers are still unable to perform their duties from their offices. So how will the budgetary allocations be spent? The local government system will end on December 31, which means that half of the allocation should be spent by then but there is no trace of such an intention in the government.

Sohail Butt, who was elected in 2016 as chairman for UC 213 in Lahore, says, “We are working from the streets using our own resources as the PTI government has appointed administrators at district level and secretaries at town level and all of them are non-elected people.” He says the Local Government Department has told them it has no space for their offices. “We have been spending from our own pockets. The people elected us. They expect this from us.”

Col Mubashir, the Lahore mayor, has also tried to get back his powers. “We have filed a petition in the Supreme Court to seek SC’s help to get our powers back.” Economist Qais Aslam says, “Don’t go for the volume of the allocation. It does not matter whether the allocation for the local government is small or huge. What matters is its spending. I doubt that Rs 26 billion will be spent on the local government system in a transparent manner.”

He says the allocation will likely be distributed amongst MPAs and the PTI’s own workers to strengthen the party in the Punjab. Punjab Housing Minister Mian Mehmood Rasheed has told media that the local governments are working in the Punjab in the light of SC’s verdict. Punjab Government’s spokesperson Musarrat Jamshed Cheema told TNS, “The PTI believes in transparency and merit. The distribution of the budgetary allocations will be transparent.”

However, there is a strong sense of insecurity within the PTI on the issue of local governments. They passed the Punjab Local Government Act 2019 and suspended the elected bodies in 2019. The PTI’s stalwarts then told Prime Minister Imran Khan that if the polls were held right away, the PML-N would sweep a majority of the seats from the Punjab because of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s poor performance. The fear led to delay that resulted in the restoration of the suspended bodies.

The same fear is now stopping the PTI from allowing the local governments to function according to their mandate. Another challenge will emerge on December 31, when the current bodies complete their term. The challenge will be fresh polls. If the PTI holds the polls and loses, its success in the general elections in 2023 will be threatened. The PTI will have to take major administrative and political steps to increase its popularity in the Punjab which is the only road to the power corridors at federal level.

Mubasher Bukhari is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and researcher. He tweets at @BukhariMubasher