EDITORIAL: This is an age of decentralisation of state powers. People want services at their doorsteps, and if that doesn’t happen they ask for accountability. But that’s not the case with two million inhabitants of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) who in the absence of their own provincial assembly and with representation in the National Assembly only by name find themselves unrepresented at forums that make laws for them. And, finally, when they did get the local government it was allowed to wither away on the vine, as its mandate remained hostage to the goodwill of the Capital Development Authority or ICT commission.
But as national politics now acquires a semblance of ‘do or die’ struggle, the local government polls scheduled to be held in the Capital on December 31, 2022 fell prey to political jugglery and didn’t take place.
The term of local government in ICT had expired on February 14, 2021 and new elections were due within 120 days. But that did happen for reasons that defy logic but perfectly fit in the common man’s consciousness that local bodies serving people at their doorsteps as the third tier of government is an unacceptable proposition for the other two governance tiers.
Rightly then LG polls schedules, be they for the Capital or anywhere else in the country, are missed almost in every case – because the holders of seats in provincial and national assemblies don’t want the allocated funds percolating to the third tier of government.
How that mindset works out the postponement of local government polls in the Capital is a case in point. The government headed by Imran Khan didn’t hold elections, pretending that ICT population had increased manifold and needed new delimitations.
So the number of union councils was increased from 50 to 101, but by the time new delimitations were marked out the Khan government was not there following a vote of no-confidence against the then PM Imran Khan. And as expected, the new arrivals in corridors of power too inherited the same anti-LG mindset and decided to undermine the ECP schedule for polls on December 31, 2022.
With Imran Khan’s call for fresh elections buzzing the PDM’s (Pakistan Democratic Movement’s) ears it decided to go against the ECP’s (Election Commission of Pakistan’s) polling schedule and passed a bill to increase the number of union councils from 101 to 125 – as if there was a tremendous explosion of ICT population to utter dismay of everybody including the family planning organisers.
From there on everything that could go wrong went wrong. Wrongly believing the enactment, to be law enacted by parliament, the ECP announced postponement of the LG polls, arguing the increase in the number of union councils warranted new delimitations which are likely to take three to four months. But it was not law as yet, because it awaited the assent of President Arif Alvi, which was not on the line. Given the diminishing timeframe for the polling, he should either have given his assent or returned it unsigned immediately.
He did not, and sent it back to parliament a day after the ECP refused to hold polls, calling the bill an “anathema to democracy”. One would like to know what made the president to sit over the bill for 10 days.
Equally puzzling is the cause that justified the court to take three days to decide that the ECP’s poll postponement decision was wrong. And strangely, it asked for the polling only half a day before the scheduled date for polling at about a thousand polling stations. That was humanly impossible; so there was no polling on December 31, 2022.
It may be of interest to note that the entire saga of postponed LG polls didn’t sit well with both the capital’s generality and the candidates irrespective of their political affiliations. For too long they have been without their own government, which should be accountable to them.
Yes, they also want a mayor and deputy mayor for they find the CDA (Capital Development Authority) and ICT commission too far to be reached to secure services at their doorsteps, and hope that someone elected by them would be within their easy reach. No doubt the ECP’s indication that it can hold polls “this week” has cheered up many faces in the Capital.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023