EDITORIAL: The federal cabinet on July 14, 2020 issued directives to the provincial governments for the constitution of Provincial Finance Commissions (PFCs) in order to arrive at Awards for the equitable distribution of resources within the provinces. Minister of Information, Shibli Faraz, revealed during a press conference after the cabinet meeting that matters pertaining to the PFCs in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan would be supervised by Minister for Planning and Development, Asad Umar. It may be noted that these three provinces have Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf governments or allied ones. The significant omission is Sindh. Not that it can be realistically envisaged that Asad Umar would be able to play the same role regarding the PFC in Sindh, given the state of continuing acrimony between the Centre and the province. Nevertheless, the issue of PFCs is deeper and of longer standing than the current political lay of the land. Just as the National Finance Commission (NFC) Awards ensure a consensus equitable distribution of resources vertically and horizontally amongst the Centre and the provinces, the PFCs are required to play a similar role vis-à-vis the Local Governments (LGs) within the provinces. This architecture of resource distribution is fundamentally tied to the existence and healthy functioning of LGs. However, the track record of LGs and PFCs in our history remains a sorry one. LGs, if and when they have existed legitimately through elections, have more often than not suffered at the hands of military and authoritarian rulers keen to use them as an electoral political base but less interested in fostering a democratic LG structure. Consequently, the PFCs that are supposed to issue consensus Awards for resource distribution to these LGs were never formed. Even the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the champion of provincial autonomy and the devolution of powers from the Centre to the federating units through, for example, the 18th Amendment, has more often than not failed to carry through the devolution logic from the provinces to their LGs. In fact, it could be said of the whole political class that they have consistently shown a marked reluctance to devolve powers from the provinces to the LGs for fear of 'diluting' their hold on their constituencies.
If and when the directive of the federal government is put into effect, the provincial governments may be confronted with long standing competing claims on resources by LGs, districts, rural and urban communities, different ethnic groups and developed versus underdeveloped areas within the respective provinces. For example, the urban community in Sindh (until lately almost exclusively represented by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has a long standing complaint about alleged neglect of the cities in the province. The counter-argument flows from Sindhi nationalist groups that it is in fact the rural areas that have suffered neglect in comparison with the cities. Interestingly, the PPP, too, advances an identical argument. This urban-rural conflict therefore also assumes the hues of an ethnic divide, making it more combustible than usual. Southern Punjab has been complaining of neglect and underdevelopment in comparison with central and northern Punjab for years, giving birth because of these unrequited grievances to the movement for a southern Punjab province/s. KP wrestles with its own Pashtun-Hazara ethnic divide on the same lines, as does Balochistan with its Baloch-Pashtun cleavage.
Verily, if and when the sorry track record of the now on, now off again existence of LGs and PFCs is reversed in favour of a permanent elected existence for the former and timely one for the latter (PFC Awards are for three years, as opposed to NFC Awards' five years), the can of worms listed above may prove a tough nut to crack to arrive at unanimous PFC Awards. But it is not a task beyond the imagination, if the political will to give the country a representative and responsive-to-the-citizen LGs structure is in evidence. Rural areas, in Sindh in particular but throughout the provinces generally, must be provided agreed and adequate resources to stem the tide of humanity seeking economic and life opportunities in the cities. Ethnic sub-groups in the provinces must be provided a fair share to mitigate their past grievances. All this requires patient, tolerant, democratic consensus building amongst competing political parties, communities and ethnicities. Can the PTI government find the reserves of goodwill and vision required for this consensus-building task?
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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