End the nightmayor

As we embrace 2017 in Pakistan, the fate of local governments in different provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory seems to hang in the balance.

In the Punjab, the mayors, deputy mayors and chairmen of municipal councils were elected in December 2016. A few days later, however, the erstwhile commissionerate system was revived, possibly to keep the provincial government’s tight grip intact.

In Balochistan, the local governments are still struggling to gain rightful access to administrative powers and finances so necessary to manage municipal tasks and services. It is disappointing to note that even though local elections were held in December 2013, the province has still not been able to streamline its working equation with elected local bodies.

The situation of local institutions in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is slightly better as the provincial administration is extending reasonable help to mayors and chairmen of smaller municipalities.

In Sindh, we see what is perhaps the most complex of examples of provincial-local relations. The toothless local governments, dominated by opposition parties, have been making cautious demands for the allocation of funds and administrative powers. Given the peculiar situation of Sindh and particularly Karachi, the resolution of this matter may appear convoluted without a straight answer.

Islamabad elected a mayor and municipality for the first time in the capital’s history. But the city is still managed by the deeply entrenched Capital Development Authority, with negligible input from municipal councilors of the mayor. Many important matters need an objective appraisal to gauge the present and future of local governments in the country.

In Pakistan, the mainstream political leadership considers local bodies a competing rival, not a collaborating arm. This feeling is especially widespread among the henchmen who control provincial tiers of their respective parties. It is correct that the local government systems have been bolstered by military dictators for their own vested interests but this fact does not undermine their inbuilt merits and opportunities. Foremost in this respect is the creation of a legitimate avenue for leadership development. In an arena where dynastic and aristocratic claims to leadership eclipse merit at every turn, the only avenue which can enable future political leadership to emerge is local government. There are hundreds of case studies of ordinary councilors, women and labour councilors, union council nazims, town, tehsil, taluka leaders and district level representatives who were able to win office purely on merit and later proved their popularity by being re-elected.

Even in the most dangerous labyrinths of KP and Balochistan, these dedicated public representatives worked tirelessly to tackle pressing problems in education, health, social welfare and area management. Some of them did not even have any political affiliation or backing and faced the wrath of both right- and left-wing parties. The local elections during 2001, 2005 and 2013-15 were reasonable tests of their ability to deliver and their performance, a malfunctioning electoral process notwithstanding.

Real political culture cannot be nurtured without frequent practice of the voting process in party cadres, local, provincial and national assemblies. It is disappointing to note that the parties that demand the promotion of democracy are probably the outfits closest to dictatorship. However, the tendency to control local governments is not new and has existed in many stable democracies also. The Thatcher regime in the UK oversaw the concentration of powers in the central government. The grants for local councils were cut and the Greater London Council and six metropolitan councils were abolished in 1986. Better sense prevailed eventually and the Greater London Authority was founded in 2000. Similarly, the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in India created the legal framework to devolve basic powers to the grassroots level (panchayats) and considerably empowered folks at the lowest tier of administration.

People need an efficient service delivery mechanism and complaint redressal system for routine paperwork. People need documentation services for their birth and death certificates, attestation and verification of addresses etc. With NADRA becoming particular over the verification of records, local councilors could be an effective office to deal with this task. Small-scale development schemes, maintenance and repair projects are also important works that require immediate attention. If the decision-making apparatus is centralized in the provincial headquarters and in the person of the chief minister, very little progress can be expected. It is not realistic to expect bureaucrats alone to be sympathetic to local issues. 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 eight years include poor quality of human resource, paucity of operational budgets, weak monitoring mechanisms, the absence of effective audit and accounts procedures, financial dependence on the provincial and federal government, a lack of control over the police force, tutelage exercised by federal and provincial institutions and the inability to generate development finance for local works. One finds more developed cities like Karachi struggling with a shortage of funds to strengthen their vital services such as fire fighting. Many other contexts are even worse in service delivery outreaches.

Politicians could come up with fresh strategies by using elected local governments to serve their manifestoes. Some basic steps they could take include: capacity-building in the local service delivery, notification and enactment of bodies such as public safety commissions, citizen community boards or finance commissions, development of municipal services as specialized cadres, introduction of appropriate taxes to generate local revenue and the acceleration of mass contact to stretch the outreach of this tier. A dedicated standing committee of parliament could be tasked with managing this discourse and establishing its own capacity by leading to the creation of acceptable institutional options. Efforts must be made to make training and capacity-building of municipal councilors an ongoing exercise. Public and private universities could be tasked with developing such programmes for councilors to realize their potential. Also, an autonomous mechanism of revenue collection for municipalities needs to be evolved for  financial independence leads to administrative freedom. Rationally speaking, the future of local government can become the subject of a populist debate.

The writer heads Architecture & Planning at NED University, Karachi, is an expert in urban planning and governance. He recently co-authored Karachi Through the Prism of Urban Design (2015)