Balochistan local government issue

Another SC intervention?

Unfortunately, the state of local governments in most parts of Pakistan is a continuous reminder of how hollow the democratic credentials of some of our elected leaders can prove to be. The Supreme Court’s order that the Balochistan government craft a law for transferring financial and administrative powers to local governments presents the perfect example. First our so called democrats practically bent over backwards to keep local body polls from taking place. And once the Supreme Court still pushed the LG elections through, the bigger political lot decided to make the exercise toothless by depriving grass-root democracy of its life and blood – financial and administrative powers.

Sadly the popular press has little time for such ‘peripheral news’. The scandals of the rich and powerful, and the doings of our political elite – things that have little or nothing to do with most of the people – must take precedence. And few people notice that the self-styled defenders of democracy are actively spoiling a transfer of power to the grass-root; which is in effect the essence of representative government. Thankfully the Supreme Court has been noticing this deliberate tinkering very carefully. And if it hadn’t been for the Court, it is very unlikely that the LG polls had taken place at all.

Now that they have, though, the SC seems committed to ensuring the process is carried out in letter and spirit. Keeping financial and administrative powers from the local governments reeks of political opportunism of the worst kind; clearly the rulers that people voted to power want to keep the money and power to themselves. They have been against devolution since the beginning. Now, however, they will have to cave in to the Court’s orders. That the Balochistan government is still ‘considering’ transferring power and funds to local governments is just not enough. It must do what is required of it or face the Court’s, and the people’s, reservations.