It was before the general elections of 2018 that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf PTI) pledged to hold local government elections and transfer political, financial and administrative powers to the grassroots level once it won the elections. This is also a constitutional provision and cannot be bypassed. Three years have passed since the PTI government came into power but these elections have not been held anywhere. Instead, these have been delayed on different pretexts. Even in Sindh, where the Pakistan Peoples Party is in power, the elections have been delayed.

Coming to the Punjab, where the PTI is in power, the latest is that the Punjab government has finally prepared a final draft of the Local Government Act, under which a mayor will be elected on party basis in the local body elections. In the new local government system, the mayor will be directly appointed by voters as the head of ten authorities besides local government.

According to the draft, elections for mayor, neighbourhood, village council and panchayat will be held on party basis. Under the new local government system, there will be 11 metropolitan corporations in the province.

Though the law has entered the legislative stage, there is no timeframe given for its approval once again and this may take a long time. The reshaping of the law and the multiple amendments are also reasonsas to why preparations for local government elections could not be completed.

There is no doubt that local governments are crucial in delivering good governance. They perform major functions like serving the administrative purpose of delivering public services and goods. They also represent and involve citizens in determining their local needs and work on viable solutions at the local level.

By delaying local government elections, provincial governments are harming the processes of development and jeopardising “good governance”. This results in unfair and inappropriate spending of national wealth on projects which are not in line with local needs. By doing so, the provincial governments lose credibility.

Arshid Mirza, the executive director of Baidarie, Sialkot, an NGO that works for the socio-economic empowerment of marginalised, vulnerable and excluded segments of society, says that the voters understand that if they had to get their local developmental issues resolved then they had to seek favour of influential federal or provincial law makers.

He says that it is now imprinted in minds of our people that only the lawmakers hold the pivotal authority to address their local problems so they must always try to associate themselves with these law makers, he adds. They are not aware, he continues, about the mandate and powers of the local government representatives.

Mirza, who is in involved in advocacy for local governments, says Pakistan has remained an “experimentation venue for different types and patterns of local government systems”.

“Each government held the local government elections using self-suited ways to safeguard its vested interests”, he says adding that strengthening of local government system has never been a priority of any government.

Currently, the federal and provincial level law makers engage in sorting local development related issues and seek control over funds and assume a pivotal status so that people continue to come to their camps to satisfy their developmental and personal needs. Currently, the power that goes from top to bottom only is devolved to the hands of bureaucrats, which shows that we never learnt to trust our elected local representatives.

The suspension of local governments in the Punjab has been noticed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) which summoned the chief secretary of the province recently to ask why there was a seven months’ delay in implementing its order passed in March 2020. The apex court had ordered for restoration of local government institutions in the province to complete their tenure.

Mirza, who is in involved in advocacy for local governments, says Pakistan has remained an “experimentation venue for different types and patterns of local government systems”. 

The court had taken up a petition moved by 15 chairmen of Zila Councils complaining they were not allowed to resume their functions. As per the petition, members of local government institutions were not being allowed to return to their offices and exercise powers as the Punjab government was exercising control over local governments through administrators appointed according to the May 4, 2019 notification.

Salman Abid, an expert in local government system studies, says the apex court order is valid till December 31 which means that the elected local government representatives will enjoy a very brief stay in power. About the new draft law, he says a five-member committee formed by the chief minister has approved it and there are plans to pass it through legislative process. He says unfortunately, none of the provinces is interested in holding local government elections especially as there is only a year and a half left until general elections.

Abid says this time the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has taken a tough stance and asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to hold these elections by December 2. About the Punjab, he says, the tentative dates given by the ECP are between March 2022 and April 2002. The provincial government has shown its willingness in this regard. He adds that the Sindh government says that they will hold local government polls after general elections whereas Balochistan too has no schedule. Salman Abid says the ECP has rejected the position taken by the Sindh government and asked it as well as Balochistan to come up with their local government polls schedule.

He, however, is of the opinion that amid the existing political ambiguity it appears that holding these elections in March-April will not be easy.

Mirza says that the bureaucracy must not be given the powers meant for elected representatives of the people as while it does understand the problems of the people, the latter do not have easy access to the offices of civil servants. People’s problems therefore largely remain unaddressed and the confidence of the people in the local government evaporates.

Currently, he says, the local government offices – field offices, union councils are being run by government officials instead of elected representatives. He is also of the opinion that officials sitting in these offices do not have necessary training to perform their duties efficiently.

“These officials are not adequately trained to serve the people. How can they then perform their functions in a befitting manner? Consequently, people begin losing interest in these institutions,” he says.

“It is therefore necessary that elections to local government institutions be held as early as possible and the elected representatives be empowered to efficiently and effectively play their legally ordained roles and responsibilities,” he concludes.

The author is a staffer and can be reached at shahzada.irfan@gmail.com