After the 18th amendment in the constitution and transfer of responsibility of education, health, agriculture and other subjects, it was expected that the provincial government will transfer some of the civic services to the local government, but unfortunately the elected government instead of holding elections of local government seems uninterested in its responsibility.
Bureaucracy is never responsive to the common man’s problems. Their mindset calls for following the rules of business, their selection and training is all based on a system formed by British colonial rulers who considered and treated natives as their subjects.
It is an irony that every military dictator tried to introduce democracy at gross root level but the elected civilian governments tried their best to avoid holding of local government election and empowering the ordinary people on one pretext or the other.
The Pakistani politicians are their own worst enemy as they have never learnt anything about democracy, which is way of life, encompasses concepts of social justice, and good governance. It is the basic responsibility of democratic government to respect the will of the people as they elect them and give them their consent to rule over them.
The people expect that their government will spend the public money thoughtfully and honestly on the welfare of the people and fix priority for improving their quality of life.
There is no mechanism in place for making decisions of the public importance on collective wisdom basis with the involvement of common man. The government decides the development projects without any input from the general public.
Due to a lack of accountability of MPAs and government employees, half the amount allocated for the development projects goes to the pocket of corrupt government employees. To establish good governance it is imperative that the local government election should be held regularly.
S T HUSSAIN
Lahore
