Local bodies' election controversies

Local bodies election schedule, announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, for August 18, 25 and September 29, promises to be a tumultuous affair. The conference that the MQM had organised on the subject on Sunday, calling it All Parties Conference (APC) - albeit minus the main Opposition alliance, the ARD, as well as the MMA, ANP, and Tehriq-i-Insaaf - ended on a rather unexpected note.
The 'APC' decided to constitute an Election Monitoring Committee and also adopted a code of conduct for the elections. Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Sher Afgan, however, refused to sign the code, saying that since the elections are to be held on a non-party basis, political parties should have nothing to do with it.
Technically, he was right. But the fact that the polls are to be held on a non-party basis defies the democratic principle as well as on-the-ground reality. For, even though the candidates are barred from using a party platform or money, the parties will have a robust presence in the process.
While the Opposition parties, including the PPP-P, the PML-N and the MMA, are busy making 'seat adjustment' deals to participate in it, the ruling coalition has its own election plan to pursue.
The President of the PML, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, openly told his party workers on Friday to spread out all over the country to campaign for the success of what he described as patriotic, honest people and men of ideology as local government leaders. That the elections are to be on a non-party basis, it is plain, is only a pretence which the powers-that-be have put on in order to ease their post-election task of winning over to the government side any amenable elected candidates belonging to the Opposition parties.
The Opposition parties' have good reason to be apprehensive about some other conditions, too, under which the elections are to be held. As per the ordinances issued by the provincial governments a few days ago, with the announcement of the elections schedule all local government institutions stood dissolved to be replaced, within 24 hours, with caretakers.
The provincial governments had a free hand to choose any officers from among their cadres to serve as caretakers. It is hardly surprising if the Opposition parties are complaining that the provincial governments have selected people who are known to be loyal to them, and hence they may be used to manipulate the election outcome.
Even though the government has tried to explain the decision as a requirement under the amended Constitution, saying that it would be applicable to the provincial and national elections as well, the issue raises genuine concerns regarding the impartiality of the caretakers.
The Opposition parties, especially in Sindh, are also unhappy at the manner in which the provincial government recently created some new districts, in the face of fierce local resistance, in the interior of the province and demarcated constituencies in Karachi on the basis of the ethnic makeup of certain areas.
This exercise, they argue, has been undertaken to enhance the electoral prospects of particular ethnic groups at the expense of the mainstream parties, thus creating an uneven playing field. As if these controversies were not enough to muddy the waters, just a day before the announcement of the election schedule, the Federal Cabinet came out with its decision to appoint a six-member sub-committee, to be headed by the Prime Minister, to 'consider' the accountability of elected representatives of local governments.
The decision, an official statement averred, had been made on the demand of ruling coalition members for competition of the audit of all districts and tehsils with a view to conducting the accountability of the Nazims involved in irregularities. Of course, there can be no two opinions about the need to hold public officials accountable for their conduct, but for that purpose there already exist provisions within the local bodies' law; and there is the NAB as well.
A Cabinet sub-committee consisting of members from the ruling coalition surely is not the right forum to carry out such accountability, all the more so at a time the local bodies are up for elections. There is no better way of holding public officials accountable in the normal course than the people's verdict through vote.
The special powers that the Cabinet has bestowed on its own sub-committee for the accountability of 'erring' district and Tehsil Nazims can only lend force to the Opposition charges that the government is trying to prevent the outgoing Opposition nazims, who happen to enjoy strong public support, from getting reelected.
None of this can prove helpful either in strengthening the institution of local government or in establishing the government's sincerity in empowering the people at the grass roots level. The least the government can do at this point in time is to ensure that the remaining process, from the acceptance of nomination papers to the actual election day proceedings, are conducted in a fair and transparent manner.
Otherwise, the Opposition may decide to use the situation to undermine the entire political edifice that the establishment has built so meticulously.