he Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a notification postponing local government elections in 17 districts of the Punjab following an order of the Lahore High Court (Multan Bench). Earlier, the elections were scheduled to be held in May-June this year.

“Local government is the third tier of democracy. A democracy cannot flourish without local governments,” says Arshid Mirza, the executive director of Baidarie, an NGO that works for the socio-economic empowerment of the marginalised, the vulnerable and excluded segments of the society.

Mirza says that local governments are nurseries for all democratic structures. He says strong, decisive, dedicated and committed leadership emerges from elected local government systems. Furthermore, this leadership is trained on ideological basis. An absence of elected local governments, he says, manifests a disregard for the spirit of democracy. He adds that it is due to the delays in establishing the third tier of governance that the processes of development and good governance comes to an abrupt stop at the local level.

Mirza says local representatives are more accessible to their voters than members of the provincial and national assemblies. It is for this reason, he says, that local governments are more responsive and the marginalised sections of the society including women and minorities look up to them for resolution of their day-to-day problems. He says given that women constitute half of the population, they should be part of all decision-making processes. He says an absence of functional local governments affects them.

Mirza says in Pakistan, politicians and bureaucrats have traditionally failed to strengthen the local government structures. He says the bureaucrats don’t understand the problems faced by the people at the local level. “Those who are in power and have authority consider local representation a burden. Local governments are considered a threat to the status quo,” he says. Additionally, Mirza says, common people don’t have access to civil servants, including deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners.

“In this way, the problems of ordinary people remain unaddressed. Thus, the citizens’ confidence in local governments starts waning off.” Local government offices, field offices, union councils and the like are run by government officials instead of elected representatives. Mirza says that civil servants in these offices lack the necessary training to perform their duties. “They must be given appropriate training so that they can be of benefit to the people they are meant to serve.”

Analysts say the unusual political situation is not helping the cause of local government elections in the Punjab. For their different reasons, neither the government nor the opposition seem interested in strengthening the third tier of governance.

Anwar Hussain, the executive director of Local Councils Association of the Punjab (LCAP), says that local governments are more empowered in established democracies. Unfortunately, he says, that is not the case in Pakistan. He adds that elections to form local governments cannot be delayed for long.

Article 140-A of the constitution states that “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”. Hussain says that according to the Article 140-A, local councils should be able to make their own decisions and be able to finance their projects on their own. But the local government systems have been fragile in the country. Using an example to illustrate his point, he says that in 2015 local government elections were held on the orders of the Supreme Court but significant powers were not transferred to elected representatives.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where local governments completed their tenure in 2020, Hussain says, a year and a half was wasted by the KP government before holding fresh elections. In Balochistan and Sindh, the local governments completed their tenures in January 2020. And yet, elections have not been held so far.

In the Punjab, the Punjab Local Government Ordinance will expire in June 2022. The election was originally scheduled to be held on June 9. Now, a stay order has been issued by the High Court against the process. It remains unclear whether the local government elections will be held at all. Hussain suggests that the local government elections should be held simultaneously with the general elections. He says that that the proposal was discussed in a meeting with representatives of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N). According to the said proposal, the Election Commission of Pakistan would have to hold an election within 90 days following the completion of the tenure of a local government. He says that if local government elections are not held within the time limit, it should be considered a violation of the constitution.

The writer is a reporter at The News International. He can be reached at sherali9984@gmail.com