Daily Times

The entire political attitude has morphed into an administrative mode. Municipal corporations of cities have been turning the ugliest shape of the cities into pleasant and eye-catching edifices; constructed with “sweat and blood” of local governments.

The suddenly-out-of-the-lamp Genie (jinn) of development indicates approaching of local government elections in Balochistan. 2020 might witness the local government elections in the province after a delay of a year. Local governments in Balochistan marked their completion in January 2019 and the province fell under the obligation of holding local government elections within 120 days while adhering to the Article 140-A of the constitution vis-à-vis section 2019(4) of Elections Act 2017. However, the province could not hold elections as per the provision of the laws.

Election Commission of Pakistan asked Balochistan Government to hold elections within 120 days after the completion of local governments. Despite holding elections, on February 11, the government through a resolution, asked ECP to put off local government elections in the province. Request to withhold timely execution of elections was based on the issue of the increased population of the province. Therefore, according to the government, the local government laws needed a much necessary reconsideration given it was the constitutional obligation of the province to reconsider delimitation of the constituencies after the census. Moreover, adjudicating on the petition filed by President of Balochistan High Court Bar Association, Shah Mohammad Jatoi, on February 13, High Court of Balochistan stopped the ECP from the delimitation of constituencies in Balochistan for local governments.

Ironically, after debarring ECP from the delimitation process through a legal process, legislators have delayed local government elections for almost a year now. Management of the problems at the grassroots level ought to be the foremost obligation of the government. The delay in local government elections based on an increased population in the province is not the only justifiable pretext.

Unfortunately, a retrospection of the performance of the last local government shuns the claim that the delimitation of the constituencies should be based on an increased population. The population of the province has doubled and it has increased to 1.23 billion approximately. The local government system was introduced in 2002 by the then-president General Pervez Musharaf to expand the roots of reform to the grassroots level. Despite this, the initiative in Balochistan has not been comparatively effective. After the 18th amendment, provincial autonomy enhanced but it did not seep down to the local governments. Comparatively, the structural outlook of the local government in Balochistan paints a picture blurred with blotches of constraints. The foremost bottleneck is the high share of power which rests in the hands of the provincial government. Issue of decentralization of financial powers of local governments remains an issue to be deliberated upon.

Interestingly, the newly installed government of PTI took interest in reforms in the local government system after assuming power. However, the lack of interest shown by Provincial governments led to a lukewarm response. Sindh and Balochistan termed the management of local governments a provincial matter. Subsequently, the PTI could only talk about reforms in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).

The Balochistan Government, after a long delay, has passed the Balochistan Local Government (Amendment) Act 2019. Through the act merely Section 7 and 10 of the Local Government Act 2010 have been amended. The amendments increase the number of union councils. The primary and foremost issue of financial empowerment of local governments is still uncertain. Senior analyst and journalist based in Quetta, Abdul Khaliq Rind, believes that an increase in the number of union councils will not ensure smooth functioning of local governments. He argues that only the financial empowerment of local governments will enable the proper working of governments.

Local governments in Balochistan marked their completion in January 2019 and the province fell under the obligation of holding local government elections within 120 days while adhering to the Article 140-A of the constitution vis-à-vis section 2019(4) of Elections Act 2017

Similarly, the government is still deliberating to propose further amendments in forthcoming days. It’s broadly believed that the future amendments might not break the financial impasse. Balochistan Awami Party has shifted its focus towards development through Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) which includes numerous schemes. The PSDP also includes LG government in its list. Furthermore, health and education are separate subjects included in PSDP while both sectors simultaneously fall under the ambit of local governments. After extending the roots of local governments through a sane decision, the government ought to hand over primary public sectors to local governments instead. Resultantly, the financial empowerment of local governments will diminish the burden of government should 30 to 40% development work is devolved to local governments. Primarily, the concept of local governments is to bolster democratic systems. The emergence of the concept can be traced back to the Mauryan Empire (322BC to 298BC). The municipal government under Mauryans was divided into six bodies each body comprising of five members. The bodies performed a range of duties ranging from inspection of things related to industrial art, entraining travellers, keeping track of birth and deaths for imposing tax and maintaining correct figures of population, to the check and balance on prices related products.

After a journey of centuries, developed governments have begotten advanced form of governments to manage affairs at the grassroots level today. For instance, in 2018, the local government in Finland contributed 47.7 billion dollars to the exchequer and the total tax collection was 44% of GDP. On a similar foot, the forthcoming amendments by the Balochistan government ought to ensure transparency in local governments. The structure of local government in Balochistan is flawed as the elections are conducted on party bases. Thus, the local government should have a separate body to ensure transparency. Until amendments inch through the cumbersome legislative process, people of Balochistan have to brace themselves for local government elections, for the all problems are local and mother of all ills, too!

The writer is a freelance journalist and researcher