Thwarting the centrifugal forces

Local Governments are the solution

For quite some time a debate has been raging in regards to the creation of new provinces in the country and its proponents present the argument that it had become inevitable in view of the inability of the provincial governments to deliver to the masses. To begin with, there was a movement for creation of new provinces of South Punjab and Hazara and of late we hear voices for dividing the country into several new provinces or administrative units. The most vociferous demand has recently come from MQM, the party alleged to have been harbouring a desire for a separate province for Muhajirs for a long time. This demand however is also being vehemently opposed by nationalist political entities of Sindh and the ruling PPP who have vowed to resist any balkanisation of the province. The decision of MQM to part ways with PPP in the wake of a statement by Khursheed Shah and the threatening posture adopted by the former is a very ominous development. Looks like the MQM is poised to relapse into its creed of confrontation of early 1990s.

In my view the demand for the creation of the new provinces or administrative units is a political stunt being bandied around for reasons other than delivering to the masses. The country already has 27 divisions and 117 districts (further divided into tehsils and union councils) which are ideal administrative units. The failure to deliver to the masses is actually attributable to non-existence of the Local Governments in these units in line with Article 140 A (1 and 2) of the Constitution which stipulates 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. Elections to the Local Governments shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan.”

As is evident from this article the Local Government system envisaged by the Constitution demands devolution of full powers to the Local Governments including development projects and the local administration, free from the strangulating control of the provincial governments. It may be recalled that when under Musharraf, Local Bodies elections were held and MQM had its own mayor in Karachi, there was peace in the city and the party had no complaints regarding usurpation of the rights of Muhajirs or injustice with them. Holding the Local Bodies elections and allowing the MQM to run the affairs of Karachi (if it wins) would surely reduce political tensions and go a long way in achieving the objective of peace in the city. Same holds good for the rest of the country.

MQM is an indispensable political reality and must be recognised as such by all the other political forces of the country.

It is a matter of great shame that while the federal and provincial governments have been functioning uninterrupted both under civilian and military rules, it were only the latter who installed systems of Local Governments during their rules, though not as envisaged in the Constitution but with the sole purpose of building support for their regimes at the grass-root level and to undermine the political parties. The elected governments that interspersed the military regimes remained criminally oblivious to this constitutional requirement. The consequences of this willful breach of the Constitution by the elected governments are that the state of Pakistan has, to a great extent, failed to provide the required services to its citizens and building a responsible relationship with them. That decidedly has also been the major factor in promoting fissiparous tendencies in the country and undermining national integration.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly ordered the federal and provincial governments and the ECP to ensure the holding of LB polls and completion of legislative work in this regard but regrettably the provinces as well as the ECP have failed to implement those orders. It may be recalled that on a petition by a private citizen the SC had ordered the federal and provincial governments to make sure that the Local Bodies elections were held by September 2013. These orders were not implemented by the provincial governments on one pretext or the other. The Supreme Court in its order on March 19, 2014, again asked the federal and provincial governments to enact new laws regarding the delimitation of the constituencies by the Election Commission and the ECP was given 45 days to accomplish the task after the required legal changes by the federal and provincial governments.

A three-member bench of the SC headed by Chief Justice Nasir ul Mulk, while hearing a case on Local Bodies on October 4, 2014, took exception to the delay in holding them by the provinces despite SC orders in this regard and on the next hearing directed the provinces to complete the legislative work immediately. Reportedly the provincial assemblies have complied with the court orders. But now the ECP has come up with the proposition that it was not possible for it to complete the delimitation of the constituencies before six months and hold the elections. The dream of installation of Local Governments therefore remains as elusive as ever. An off-shoot of the controversy regarding creation of new provinces is that a lobby within the intelligentsia has even started challenging the purposes and objectives of the 1973 Constitution.

The answer to ending the controversies regarding new provinces, thwarting the centrifugal forces and delivering to the masses lies in holding Local Bodies elections in the existing administrative units with all the powers as enshrined in Article 140-A without further loss of time. All the political parties therefore must join hands in fulfilling this constitutional requirement and bringing reforms in the governance and electoral systems of the country. The PML-N government, especially Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is committed to improving the system of governance in the country and has been rightly emphasising the need for adherence to the Constitution and rule of law in the country, owes it to the people to give them a system of Local Government in conformity with the relevant constitutional provisions.