13.10.2013 A fiasco called local government elections
The way to a smooth political process is a well-functioning local
government system in urban and rural domains
By Dr Noman Ahmed
At the moment, a tug of war is taking place between the provincial governments and the echelons of superior judiciary. The provincial governments are being reminded by the Supreme Court to fulfil their constitutional responsibility — of holding elections to the respective local bodies as per proviso of Article 140A of the Constitution.
The provincial governments have not been able to meet the deadline set by the superior court. The matter is closely observed by the top judges who cited displeasure on the delaying tactics adopted by provincial administrations.
The political parties, with a few exceptions, consider local governments as an institutional residue of military dictatorships. They also do not wish to create fresh cadres of legitimate leadership which can develop populist associations with vote banks. However, this is myopic thinking. If parties wish to genuinely take the leadership development to the masses, local governments are the best option. This can at least offer an option against hereditary claims to control of political power. There are many examples pertinent to ordinary councillors, women/labour councillors, union council nazims, town/tehsil/taluka level leaders and district level representatives who were able to win offices purely on merit — and later proved their popularity through re-election.
These dedicated public representatives made determined effort to address pressing problems related to education, health, social welfare and area management. Some of them were even devoid of any political affiliation and had to face the wrath of both right and left wing parties. The two elections during 2001 and 2005 were reasonable tests for their performance evaluation, malfunctioning of electoral process notwithstanding.
Political culture cannot be nurtured without a practice in voting on party basis.
Ordinary people have ordinary problems that warrant solutions at the lowest level — not in headquarters of mighty organisations. Besides, people need an efficient service delivery mechanism and complaint redressal system for routines such as attestation, verification and certification. Local institutions and their elected members are normally forthcoming in such tasks. Small-scale development schemes, maintenance and repair projects are also important works that require immediate attention. If the decision-making apparatus is centralised in the person of chief ministers of provinces, little progress can be estimated. Expectation from bureaucrats alone to be sympathetic to the local issues may not be realistic.
A well-functioning local government system in urban and rural domains has to be strengthened after removing the various handicaps that it has faced. Problems identified during the past several years include poor quality of human resource, paucity of operational budgets, weak mechanism of monitoring, absence of effective audit and accounts procedures, financial dependence on the provincial/federal government, lack of control over police force, tutelage exercised by federal/provincial institutions and inability to generate development finance for local scale works.
The city of Karachi is being cleansed through a planned operation. But every operation needs post-surgical care. The relationship of local-scale policing and maintenance of peace and harmony among the ranks of various interest groups can be facilitated through an efficient local government. While the provincial status of the police department may remain intact, some local autonomy can be negotiated among the politicians and civil society to carve out a workable solution.
For the residents of Karachi, who have been held hostage to target killings and turf wars which has taken no more than 6000 lives between 2003 and 2012, local bodies are even more important. So, a political solution in the form of a local governance formula could be an effective answer.
The political parties should evolve a fresh strategy by using elected local governments to serve their clearly pronounced manifestoes. Capacity building in the local service delivery, notification and creation of bodies such as public safety commissions, citizen community boards or finance commissions, municipal services and taxes to generate local revenue are some basic steps. There are many institutional arms, think tanks and non-governmental organisations that have garnered enough experience to transform the political objectives into a proper workable blue print for the future form of local government. The new local governments should bring peace and harmony to the province, not generate further divisions in the already divided ranks in the society.