A tough assignment for the PTI led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is just to begin; the holding of local government election would be the test of credibility and the commitment of the present set up. It has been reiterated time and again by Imran Khan and his party stalwarts that the democratic practices should be observed at gross root level and the designation of powers to district, Tehsil and even the village level would help to end up the corruption and facilitate transparency from the bottom up to the top. It is mandatory for a democratic system of government to encourage local government set up so that the people should have the benefits at their door steps.
The local government could play the role of a nursery where the would-be leaders flourish and it would contribute to national level leadership and there would be no dearth of trained and expert politician. And the emergence of leadership from gross root level would certainly help to lessen the miseries of the common folks as the leadership has the firsthand experience of understanding the real issues of the localities.
Why the local government system has not been promoted or facilitated in Pakistan; is a question worthy to explore. There might be more than one reason. Our politics revolves around holding power and authority. The politicians do love to manipulate the public offices in their own constituencies. The appointment and transfers of government officials is the favorite hobby of our respectable legislators. If the local government would be in place, it would assume the responsibility of appointing and transferring of capable officials on merit basis and this would create a conflict of power and authority. The national and provincial members would consider it a challenge. The other matter is implementing of mega projects of developing public infrastructure. The roads, water supply schemes, provision of electricity, sewerage system, streets, water channels; all are planned in a way to attract voters and not on the basis of community demands or needs. The objectives of development work are to increase the numbers of voters and sometimes huge commissions play its due role. If local government would be handling district affairs, all the schemes would be monitored and even implemented by the representatives of local government. The parliamentarians are not ready to digest this bitter reality. So, the local government system has never got support needed from member of provincial and national assemblies.
The 18th amendment has given way and made it mandatory for provincial government to hold election and establish local government. The article 140A clearly states that “1) 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. (2) Elections to the local governments shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan”. It is now the responsibility of provincial government to work for the establishment of local government system.
The Punjab province has taken the lead when advocate general of Punjab informed Supreme Court that the demarcation of the constituencies has been completed and election would be held on December 7. Similarly, the Sindh is ready to hold election as explicitly stated by Nisar Ahmad Khuhro that the Sindh government has formally sent a letter to the Election Commission to schedule the local government election. During the hearing of case, the KP advocate general shared that due to the perilous law and order situation and Eid holidays, the new local government rules has not been passed and efforts would be made to get it passed during current week. The Supreme Court has already directed all the four provincial and the federal governments to hold local government elections 2013.
The KP Minister for Local Bodies Inayatullah Khan briefly shared the structure of the new local government system with media persons and stated that the system would be based on village councils and each council would be comprised of 2000 to 10000 population while neighborhood councils will have 6,000 to 15,000 people. The village council would have 10 members; and the representations of women, youth and minority will be ensured.
The power would be devolved to gross root level and the council will supervise the police committee, governing body for basic health units and parent teachers’ councils for schools. A revenue committee is also in the plan to provide relief to the common people.
The draft of the bill has been introduced in assembly during last week session and it has been referred to a select committee for further changes. The critics of the bill are raising concerns that why the village councils elections would be held on non-party basis whereas the election for Tehsil and district councils are suggested to be conducted on party basis.
But, with all hue and cry, chaos and speculations, the elections of local government is going to be held. All the four provinces are experiencing different political parties with different set of priorities. All have their own agenda. Almost all the parties are publically favoring and even convening for local bodies. The game is on, and all provincial governments are assuring to fulfill the requirements determined in 18th amendments. The common folks are enthusiastic to participate in local government election as this would provide them an entry to the world of politics where the proverbial quote categorically explains the meaning of “the sky’s the limit”.
