A flurry of activity is taking between Islamabad and Lahore as the federal government pushes its handpicked provincial cabinet to finalize a plan for local government bodies. And why not, the Naya Pakistan government has been elected on a platform of reform in governance. Unlike the resource-starved and neglected KP (under the PML-N government), Punjab is where PTI gets to showcase its agenda for reform.
And local government reforms matter: at a time of austerity and fiscal stabilization, PTI government will have little else to show for its performance in infrastructural development. Already, there is talk of reducing subsidy for projects such as metro. Sooner or later, the province with 53 percent of country’s population will begin to clamor under the weight of hikes in energy tariffs. That’s when improvements in public service delivery will become crucial to regain public confidence.
The federal government claims that it intends to replicate the “success” of village, neighbourhood and tehsil model of KP in land of five rivers. Most observers opine that the blame for failure of Punjab local model in service delivery lies not with the legislation but tendency of previous CM to rack up all power with himself and coterie of select officers. After all, the previous cabinet had portfolios for all devolved subjects yet certain ministers complained of being treated like children of lesser god, allegedly taking directions from the provincial secretariat.
So, besides the optics of localized nomenclature, does KP’s legislation have no edge over Punjab? That is disputable. The most significant area is the difference in language of devolution. KP’s law devolves control over administrative and financial management of local council in the province to local government. This is in sharp contrast to the Punjab government law, which simultaneously set up district education and health authorities in each district, to curtail the independence of local government, which in theory should have control over the areas in line with the principles of devolution.
The district health and education authorities constitute of unelected technocrats, nominated by the provincial government, giving the province effective control over the direction in key service delivery areas, from posting of teachers in primary and secondary schools to allocation and release of budget to tehsil and taluka hospital and dispensaries.
However, the KP law is not without faults too. The legislation holds emergency powers where CM may issue directives in public interest to a district council nazim; where failure of implementation could lead to necessary action by chief secretary. While benign in its choice of words, the clause gives discretionary power to prospective chief ministers to target local representatives from rival political parties.
Local government models often also fail due to the pervasive competition between federal/provincial legislators and local representatives to take credit for development in their districts. The PTI government has taken the right step by issuing a moratorium on MNA’s discretionary funds, taking him out of the development picture entirely. In order to make local representatives effective, there is a need to the same for provincial legislators.
Comments
Comments are closed.