The Sindh High Court has ordered the provincial government to hold local governments (municipal) elections within 90 days. As expected Sindh government has indicated to move an appeal against this order. Since 2009 Sindh city governments/ councils are being run without elected representatives but by the government’ appointed administrators. In fact same situation prevails in all the other provinces as well. None of the provincial governments is ready to hold local government elections as find it difficult to share administrative and financial powers at grass root level. Most of the political parties are simply against handing over powers to local representative at village, town and city levels.
These parties want to continue with the colonial legacy commissionerate system wherein bureaucrats run the municipal matters of a city or a town. By doing so provincial and federal parliamentarians, who have officially nothing to do with municipal matters such as rubbish collection, sewage, road repairs, water supply etc find it easy to collect funds and spend the same for their own promotion, obviously they get full support from municipal administrators as cuts/kickbacks see no bounds.
If our provincial and federal parliamentarians see no value of the job for which they are elected – law making, then better we shall dissolve all the assemblies, handover running of government affairs to technocrats and let theses parliamentarians be elected in local governments/ councils. But that is also not acceptable as we like to be called democrats, however, this democracy is bit selective – up to a level; not for an ordinary person who needs relief at grass root level.
Let’s support Sindh and other provincial governments’ efforts to challenge the local government system as this is in conflict with ordinary peoples’ interests.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
