Punjab and Sindh Must Amend Laws to Empower the Local Bodies
By Salahuddin Haider
Karachi, Pakistan

 

The divorce was not only ill-timed for Imran Khan, it was loaded with problems for the Tehreek-Insaaf chief, who now seems to be at the crossroads of his political career once again. But the landslide victories in Sunday’s elections, while bringing joy and smiles for PML-N and PPP,  have simultaneously put them on trial. They need to amend their respective local bodies laws, to devolve authority, concentrated in the hands of their respective chief ministers, and vest administrative and financial powers in the hands of the newly elected members of the local government institutions.

Failure to do so will render the entire exercise, conducted at a huge cost to the public exchequer, absolutely meaningless. The two governments in the Punjab and Sindh should now bow before public aspirations to strengthen democracy at the grassroots level.

Lessons need to be learnt from practices followed for decades in established democracies of the world. In Europe and America, and even in former communist blocs of Eastern Europe, China and Russia, power for resolving local problems rests with the lowest tiers of the administration. If in the United States, a system of community police has been in practice with an elected sheriff, America, England and several other European countries have county system, with mayors as administrative heads while China has pursued for decades a commune system for resolving problems at the lowest levels of administration.

Practices followed in Sweden, and Switzerland, must help us reform our archaic system of wasteful expenditures, pomp and show, which is the least required these days. It must be clearly understood by Islamabad that democracy does not mean mere elections. Deliverance counts more than anything else. This is the 21 st century where people have easy access to modern technologies, and can, within seconds, compare their own country with those, reaping rich harvests of good governance, devolution of power, and cost-effective mechanism of State management.

All these things have sadly been missing in the Pakistani society, whose founding fathers had public welfare uppermost in their mind. Their labor and hard work to establish a new State for the people of the sub-continent, blessed with rule of law, equality, justice and fair play, have, unfortunately, all been   thrown to the winds. Laws are framed to protect those at the helm and justice is denied to the poor and the helpless.

In Sweden, the prime ministers are not allowed official residence, drive their own cars, are allowed drivers only on State functions or while receiving foreign dignitaries, have no servants. They are denied anything and everything that will be a burden on tax payers’ money. Switzerland, a small country with a population of 8 million, is administratively divided in 26 cantons. The country has a small cabinet of just 7 ministers, drawn from the ruling and opposition parties. They elect one of them president of the country, with no salary, no emoluments, perks or privileges, which are allowed only for official purposes. They do not have these facilities for their personal life.

Fortunately, I was witness to such austerity when in 1975, I saw the then Swedish prime minister, Olaf Palme, who was shot dead while cycling to home from a movie house, rushing out of the terminal building at the Stockholm airport, trying to wear his jacket, and storming into the aircraft carrying the late Mr Z A Bhutto. On enquiry we found later that the host had apologized to Mr Bhutto, then prime minister of Pakistan, that his wife had an appointment with her doctor, and he had to prepare breakfast for his children. Hence the delay of 6/7 minutes.

Can we ever think of emulating such examples?  Former civil servant, Qudratullah Shahab, an eminent literary figure has mentioned in his book “Shahabnaama” that as a personal staff member of the Quaid-i-Azam, he learnt that the founder of Pakistan wanted to enquire as to how a chair costing Rs 47 was bought for his sister, Miss Fatima Jinnah. On being told that she, as his aide, had to be with him all the time, hence the new chair was bought for her. Impeccably honest and in the habit of keeping account of every penny, the Quaid told the Governor General officials that Miss Jinnah did not have any official position. He asked them to deduct Rs 47 from her personal account. The government cannot pay for a non-official.

Alas, we could not follow such a shining example. Austerity, like the Holy Qur’an, has been put on the shelf in Pakistan.

If security in a terror-stricken country is of a paramount consideration for VIPs, let there be a few efficient and highly trained men be with the President, and Prime Minister, governors and chief ministers. The practice of carrying a convoy of 50 to 60 cars for the security of VIPs, causing inconvenience to people by blocking roads for their movement in major cities, must now be discarded for good for they are an enormous burden on the tax payers’ money. An efficient, reliable security system must replace the present fleet of vehicles on duty escorting head of State and others on their tour of cities or while leaving for the airport.

Politicians and parliamentarians can have their own private security. They are not supposed to burden the exchequer. E very penny of public money has to be accounted for.

While the PML(N)  in Punjab’s 12 districts, and PPP in Sindh’s 8 districts, have recorded landslide victories, they should now amend the law for managing the new local body institutions. Chairmen, vice chairmen of Union and Town Committees, councilors etc., must be vested with complete administrative and financial authority to take care of the lower-level problems of the people. Why should someone from suburban areas, or those in the interior of the Punjab or Sindh provinces, run the capital cities of Karachi and Lahore or entrusted the task of redressing trivial problems, or running day-to-day affairs? The system of local government is meant to resolve problems at the door steps. This would be possible only when laws are amended to devolve power from the chief ministers of the provinces to the newly elected members of local administration. Lust for power and pelf has to be given up now if we want to be counted among the civilized countries of the world.

Unfortunately, a similar situation prevails in KP and Balochistan where such elections were held much earlier. But dispensaries, hospitals, schools, etc, are still suffering from minor and major problems, because the chairmen of union committees and councilors are yet to be empowered to resolve their problems.