Power to the people. The Prime Ministers disclosure about the upcoming local bodies polls was heartening. Though no date has been given as of yet, it is expected that the polls are going to be conducted for a modified local government system. This is indeed a good step forward.
Many have written on the irony in the fact that it was a military dictator who installed the system and a democratically elected government that did away with it. The irony about the latter holds true, not about the military dictator. At the time, it was part of a plan to ensure that a lot of creative energies are fizzled out towards local issues. Legislation and policy on national and provincial issues were outsourced, in a manner of speaking, to the military. Plus it was a part of the democratic fig-leaf that was necessary for a person who expounded his views on grass-roots democracy instead of the sham one. Even though these polls were heavily rigged, they had a counter productive effect for the purpose they were intended. The public saw their votes and decisions in very localized environments. It was the first opportunity for the public to elect executives as opposed to legislators who would be eventually specialized executives if their party comes to power. Through this, a renewed yearning for democracy was created in certain classes, specially in the peripheral areas. It is this yearning that was a not insignificant part of the tide against Musharraf.
There are many flaws in the system. They could be done away with it. For starters, ironically for a system of local governance, the distance between a voter and candidate was even more than that of a national assembly candidate (e.g. Lahores 13 MNAs as opposed to its one Nazim). Second, the army of councilors served only as an electoral college for higher positions. That is not in line with the spirit of our parliamentary democracy. There is a litany of complaints. An ideal way to deal with the situation could be to let the provinces decide for themselves the extent of empowerment that they want to accord their respective local governments. It is going to take some time to get it right but it will be well worth the wait. To the polls, then!
