The biggest losers
As we move on to the end of the second democratic term in the country and prepare ourselves to decide which party to lend our support to in the upcoming elections, we should take a round of the cities we live in. This is a suggestion. This is just an idea that, in its remotest possibilities, might reshape or influence our voting behaviour and preferences. And while we are out there, we should ask some basic questions; can we drink tap water? How is the quality of air? Can we have hygienic and unadulterated food anywhere – be it a roadside dhaba or an expansive restaurant? What happens in the city when it rains? Are the neighborhoods clean and the city sewers working properly? What is the condition of roads, transport facilities and other networked services? Do we have enough parks and green spaces or adequate leisure amenities in town? Are we secure in the city? Closely observe other public services if you have more time – from marriage, birth and death registering bureaus to hospitals, schools and those that regulate your businesses and manage your properties and assets – in order to get the real picture of things on ground.
You will get the obvious answers. If you roam around, these places will speak to you that the biggest losers of the decade of democracy in Pakistan are its cities, which have been systematically left out to produce the urban chaos that we experience on daily basis. Every municipal service from water supply, sewerage, solid waste and transport to food security, land, housing and policing are far from being smooth even in the best of our cities (that we consider) which witnessed tons of money poured into them in the last decade.
The issues of public service delivery form the basis of complicated debates of public policy and are also the ones that draw a clear line between the ‘developed’ and the ‘underdeveloped’ geographies in the world
Quite understandably, these are not simple questions. Rather, the issues of public service delivery form the basis of complicated debates of public policy and are also the ones that draw a clear line between the ‘developed’ and the ‘underdeveloped’ geographies in the world. But taking up these matters is the whole point of democracy and accountable governance especially at the time of elections in order to rescue the real issues from the dust of election rhetoric and verbose manifestos and also in order to rescue the democracy itself in our country.
It is critical to draw a checklist for the potential candidates especially from the parties in power in the most urbanized and the most populous provinces (Sindh and Punjab) as to what they have done in the last ten years on account of the basics for life in the cities. What were they thinking when they were holding all the institutional powers of urban affairs at provincial level to the extent that even graveyards are being managed by the provincial government authorities. And even if they let the local government elections happen on the orders of the Supreme Court, they didn’t allow the local bodies to function even with their clipped wings. We all remember the textbook lesson that having local bodies is not an end itself but they are means through which we are able to address our municipal problems down to the smallest unit of a city.
If we allow ourselves more time to think deeper into it, the failure is not just on the part of the parties in power that deprived the city governments of their constitutional space in the urban governance. The local leadership is also responsible for this. Imagine, what the local councilors are doing after their elections when they have almost nothing left in the local government laws to deliver and there’s no resistance from these elected city representatives to the all-powerful provincial governments. They are playing like hostages to this situation – not ready to speak up to the mighty party bosses in order to avoid their displeasure. So consolidation of dynasties in politics is a bottom-up process as much as it is top-down.
From this situation it appears that the numbers, which predict the fate of our lives in these cities don’t really scare us. Every time a report on the state of our cities is out; livability, human development, city security or governance rankings are published; we brush them aside. It feels like the future approximations regarding our demographic realities and their conclusions on what is in store for us in the days to come are just irrelevant. When such stocktaking is absent, we are taking away the essence of democracy where representative politics will gradually become an isolated activity devoid of public service and accountability. In the century of cities, if at all we wish to see democratic values with responsive governance take their roots in society, let us start with asking questions on the urban basics.