Plus Ca Change

After backtracking on its plans to introduce police and bureaucracy reforms, the PTI government in Punjab is in the process of making yet another policy U-turn. According to a press report, the provincial government has decided to allocate Rs 100 million to each ruling coalition MPA for development works in their respective areas. It may be recalled that while in opposition, Prime Minister Imran Khan had persistently criticized the then government for handing out development funds to MPAs and MNAs whose job, he had rightly pointed out, was to legislate leaving the local development issues to be addressed by local governments.
Soon after assumption of power, the PTI had announced its plan to bring in a new local government (LG) system, making a meaningful devolution of power at the grassroots level, complete with financial autonomy. In early September last, Khan constituted a committee telling its members to recommend their proposals, within a week, for a new LG structure. Since then the committee has held several meetings, some presided over by the PM himself. Reiterating his promise to devolve power to the third tier of government, he had averred "empowerment of the people in a local government system is the best form of government". There is no doubt about his intentions. Nonetheless, four months on, the committee's recommendations are yet to see the light of the day. The present report gives a clue as to what has been causing the hitch. It is the ruling party legislators' unwillingness to let the LGs take control of development funds. Not only that, the report also quotes a PTI MPA as saying the ruling party members have decided to raise the issue of district administrations not cooperating with them to resolve what he described as citizens' problems. In other words, they are averse to change, which could deprive them of hefty funds and also use of their authority to have district administrations cater to their personal needs. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Considering the PTI had successfully implemented police reforms and established an empowered LG system in KP during its first term in that province, it should not have been difficult for it to replicate the same in Punjab. What seems to hinder its reform plans in Punjab obviously is the resistance coming from some of the legislators who won their seats as independent candidates; and more than them its coalition partner, the PML-Q. Most of these people, returning to the assembly again and again, are in the habit of using the police as well as administration officials for personal purposes. The PTI government may be in a quandary, but making unsavory compromises will damage its image in the public eye. The PM needs to persuade his coalition partners not to hinder his agenda for change or risk being accused of having raised false slogans of making a "Naya Pakistan".