The existing political and administrative structure with its highly
centralized state power is incapable of providing effective popular governance.
The prevailing system strongly resists equitable distribution of power in which
the rich protect their own interests. Autocracy and centralized rule practiced
by the past rules, both military and civil, has damaged democracy, destroyed
National Institutions, and kept a healthy political culture from developing.
By giving the power to the people, where it actually belongs, the
future well being, stability and unity of the nation will be enhanced. The
decision to bring the voter’s age down from twenty one to eighteen years has
increased the number of voters and has brought youth in the mainstream of
national life. Local governments can enable the local monitoring communities to
manage their primary social and civic tasks. To make the devolution of power
effective, the district governments have to be granted vast financial and
administrative powers.
They must have the power to levy and collect revenues. Devolution
without enabling the local governments to raise and manage funds from their own
resources is not likely to enable the people to run their own affairs.
Since effective lower judiciary is an important part of the system of
devolution, new local judicial institutions have to be created and existing
one’s strengthened to provide cheap and immediate justice. Arbitration and
conciliatory courts at union council level will also help to avoid expensive
litigation whereas according to the present set up the common man has to run to
the provincial capital or to Islamabad to obtain justice, which in many other
countries, are the responsibility of local authorities.
Effective decentralization of authority is essential to ensure peoples
involvement in government from the village to the National level. Only through
active participation of the masses and strong and united nation.
An accessible infrastructure of quick and better solution will be
provided for the day to day problems of the people through the Union Councils.
Tehsils, and District government. Decentralization will ensure the provision of
better civic and utility services, as they will be controlled by local elected
representatives. The people will thus have a far more responsible government,.
Social welfare, public works, public transport, education and health services
along with law and order will be the responsibility of the local government.
They must therefore be granted financial and administrative powers for effective
control and management.
The genesis of the present situation is that in Pakistan politics has
never been based on some specific philosophy, program or principles. It has
been in negation of all the ingredients of democracy. It has always been
confined to prison or personalities. Ever since partition the only motive of
alliances has been for personal gain, power and wealth. Political parties are
the personal fiefdom of political leaders; scions of inter related families of
Landlords, Pirs, Nawabs, industrialists, business tycoons and Generals. They
conspire and intrigue with civil/ military bureaucracy to achieve, retain and
perpetuate power.
Provincial disharmony has arisen out of the neglect and the
deprivation of the smaller provinces. The centralization of power has encouraged
internal dissension and disharmony. It has weakened the State and aggravated the
multidimensional crises the people face in their daily life. This has resulted
in deteriorating political and social fabric of the country. Therefore,
decentralization of power will make the government more responsive to the
aspiration of the poor as their participation in governance would increase. Till
now all the provinces are devoid of effective power and the center has enjoyed
power in majority of subjects. Most of these required to be decentralized and
restored to the provinces and from thence to the Districts. As there was no
system to grant more provincial autonomy so, the local autonomy was always
lacking in our country. Hence the process of decentralization was long overdue
because autonomy can not be introduced without ensuring and safeguarding
provincial autonomy.
The historical background of the issue irradiates that our provincial
and national politics have been helpless victims of the power hogging syndrome.
Whoever reaches the throne, sets about misusing all the power that he can lay
his lands on, whether, it is covered by the rules or not. However, the local
government was degenerated into an instrument for perpetuating the British Raj.
Bureaucracy was imposed on the people’s representatives, Deputy commissioners
were the pillars of British Empire. Nothing much changed after independence in
the year 1947. Pakistan inherited a highly centralized political system. Even
the idea of federation envisaged by the successive reconstitution was negated
by the preponderance of the central government’s power in legislative, financial
, administrative and political fields. The ruling classes confirm to the
colonial traditions of governing the entire country from a strong center.
Rapidly changing governments with programs mainly for their
perpetuation led to the neglect of development of local government. Suppression
of the local government has been a common phenomenon. Bureaucratic dominance led
to internal conflicts. Administrators frequently replaced the elected
representatives. The power sharing problem has played a vital role in the
political scene of the country. The most tragic outcome of this issue is the
creation of Bangladesh.
The devolution of power plan introduced by the Chief Executive sounds
very well but one major aspect that has not yet built the system is an internal
control mechanism. The only political check on the powers of the Nazim is the
District Assembly. However, this check comes in the form of a no confidence
motion or voting on a decision making powers of the Nazim.
Local government should be evolved and developed by the local people
according to their own experiences and aspirations. That is what happens in
United States and other developed countries. The public representative elected
in this way might misuse his power.
This hazard can be eliminated in this way that there must be a three or five
member standing committee, to be elected by the assembly, to share powers with
the Nazim. This committee is usually provided in most elected assemblies in the
world. In our country, such a committee is either never elected, or if it is,
the chief or the Mayor makes sure that it is not effective. This committee is
actually meant to be a political check for the Mayor and the political system.
In our case, this is probably the time to write in ironclad clauses to ensure
that it functions and performs the role of a watchdog.
In order to ensure that the committee is elected in transparent
manner, election of this committee should be handled by the Election Commission
simultaneously with the elections of the Nazim. Thus the Nazim and the assembly
will know form the very beginning that the committee has to be taken seriously
and that it will be the supreme decision taking body. Experience has shown that
the committees are less vulnerable to corruption than individuals.
Another major issue is the exact extent of power to be exercised by
the civil servants and the elected representatives at the district level. It is
not enough to say that the District officers will be subordinate to the district
Nazim. Since these officers shall be appointed by the provincial government,
they will continue to report in some matters and some ways to the provincial
governments. For instance, a scheme that is costlier than a prescribed amount
may be required to be cleared by a higher authority in this case the district
officer will have to send it to the provincial government. In such cases, exact
powers for each department and each layer of the hierarchy will have to be
defined.
Essentially it boils down to the distribution of powers between the
provincial government and the district for the government functionaries we are
talking about are really the functionaries of the provincial governments.
However, the method and extent of control over the provincial vivil servants by
the district and provincial governments will be crucial to the success of the
devolution plan.
If the district representative
is made all powerful, he might begin to misuse his authority over the civil
servants. Similarly, if the civil servant knows that the district representative
has negligible control over him, the devolution exercise may prove of not much
democratic worth.
It is therefore, necessary to decide the issue with great care. An
extensive exercise is required before the question of powers and their sharing
can be decided. We must firs decide the quantum of work and the exact amount of
funds that will be placed at the disposal of the district governments. At the
same time, we need to decide exactly how the files would move in the district
government hierarchy. Who will sanction a scheme, which will prepare it and who
will check it before it is approved. The answers of these questions will
determine the level of officers required in different positions in the district.
In some departments, it may not be necessary to have senior officers.
In these cases, like planning and finance, it may be necessary to have at least
a couple of senior officers to scrutinize a project or other work before being
put up to the Nazim or the Assembly. Such officers, although subordinate to the
Nazim will have to be under some form of indirect control of the chief secretary
and the provincial government so that decisions on important matters are subject
to some supervision at a higher level.
So, conceived in this way that the concept is workable and is already
working in the advanced and highly developed countries. In our country
illiteracy may prove a major impediment in this conceptual change. In developed
countries the literacy rate is high and temperament is tolerant. A number of
bottlenecks are likely to doom the envisaged devolution of power at the grass
roots level to failure. This in turn may have serious implications for the
country as a whole and for the army in particular. Conceptually it is not a bad
idea. But it can be analyzed that this hen is not likely to lay the golden egg,
unless the present set of government continues for another minimum of ten years.
This is because the seed being sown now has yet to sprout, grow into an adult
plant, bear the fruit and than the quality, taste and flavor of this fruit is to
be monitored for a few years to establish its palatability. If meanwhile the
gardener changes, the next one may even uproot that plant finding it not to his
taste.