The thorny issue of local government system did come up in the meeting President Zardari had with Altaf Hussain in London on Thursday but, going by the media reports, it appears that differences over this make-or-break question persisted and no fresh ground was broken. That confirms the widely held perception that the PPP leadership would like to remain ambivalent till the end of October when the local bodies system goes out of the federal government's purview.
Since the president and his most important aide, Rehman Malik, are personally beholden to the MQM for support - the latter couldn't have been elected to the Senate without the MQM votes - the junior coalition partner rightly entertains the hope that the two of them should stand by it on the issue. Even the recent visit to Karachi by President Obama's special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, as an expression of American support for the system, that followed a convention of councillors and nazims there, does not seem to have effected any change in the PPP position.
In fact, the PPP members of parliament and provincial assemblies are against the Local Government system, and in this, their position is quite close to the PML (N)'s. Obviously, after the local bodies are handed over to the provinces, their survival would be at great risk. So, the MQM leadership is seeking presidential intercession, and is quite willing to agree to some amendments if that can save the system from the impending guillotine.
The local government system had not perceivably succeeded in Punjab and NWFP. But this is hardly a justification for its rejection, elsewhere in the country, including Karachi where it has made quite a visible change in the local governance of the country's economic hub. Another, equally important reason for this perceptional mismatch stems from the fact that while Punjab and NWFP are now being run by political elites that are rejectionists of the Musharraf legacy, the MQM was very much part and parcel of his administration and, perhaps, also of his worldview.
But the post-electoral PPP-MQM alliance in Sindh draws sustenance more from President Zardari's vision of a co-operative relationship, in the interests of peace and harmony in the province, especially in its principal cities like Karachi and Hyderabad, than his party's need for coalition. The PPP enjoys absolute majority in the Sindh provincial assembly and can form a government on its own, without any help from the MQM.
But this is also true that had the Naqvi plan for devolution of power been implemented, in letter and spirit, the local government of Karachi could do still better. The mega city suffers from some lingering malaises like land mafias, chaotic public transport, unruly labour unions, politically-motivated postings and transfers in the police. While the city government would like to bring normality and efficiency in these crucial public interest areas, it has no control over them; they fall under the administrative control of the provincial government.
Rightly then, Altaf Hussain has sought President Zardari's indulgence in improving the local bodies system for its maximum delivery, instead of scrapping it; something which can be done now when the president can single-handedly introduce reforms in the local government system.
Thanks to its revival by Musharraf's military regime, the local government system in Pakistan is seen as essentially a political issue. For the widely-held perception that every military ruler had tried to create his own constituency by rallying grass-root level support, the present LG government is under a severe attack by the principal political forces - who find it impeding their way to cultivating their voters in the federal and provincial legislative houses. That explains the opposition of local bodies at the level of government, as against its support by PML (Q) that sits on the opposition benches.
Therefore, it deserves a dispassionate national discourse before the system is scrapped or consigned to limbo. Given the heightened pace of social change, pushed as it is by ever-increasing inputs of technology in our day-to-day life, the public-government connection is withering on the vein, in that an average citizen is tied far more tightly with the working of local bodies, than with the authorities ensconced in far pavilions. You may call it basic democracy or a local government system or call it by any other name, the truth remains that face-to-face democracy is the best form of democracy.