Ms Fatimah Naeem is pursuing her Bachelor's in Peace and Conflict Studies from National Defence University Islamabad.
Introduction
The establishment of a local government system for the devolution of power to the provinces has been attempted several times in the political history of Pakistan. Following the country’s 1947 declaration of independence, three constitutions (1956, 1962, and 1973) were passed, with four periods of martial rule under various regimes. Both the political and military rule have bolstered and threatened the long-term viability of municipal governments throughout the nation.
To put it broadly, civilian rule tends to supplant local democracy with non-participatory, unelected entities administered by government appointees, whereas military rule tends to foster it. To achieve stability, the devolution of power was a sought-after scheme. By diffusing the power from one authoritative body and amongst different local governing bodies, it was much easier to maintain administrative reliability and stay on the public’s merits.
After independence in 1947, General Ayub Khan’s Basic Democracy Order 1959 institute a local government system in 1959. However, local governments lay inactive for over a decade until being revitalised in 1979 by General Zia’s “local bodies” initiative. However, democratic governments’ persistent pushback left such changes in a precarious position.
General Pervez Musharaf, who came to power in a coup in October 1999, attempted to revive the local government system in Pakistan once again under his Devolution of Power Plan. It brought innovation into the old political and administrative structure, breaking the cycle of national autonomy and investing in various deprived sectors of the country.
Incorporating the principle of subsidiarity, the Devolution of Power Plan of 2001 (DOPP) proposed a paradigm shift by transferring authority from provinces to districts and other subordinate levels. Before the DOPP, the concept of subsidiarity was seldom brought up in talks of development or in the halls of power in Pakistan. Both decentralisation and a new election system were central tenets of the DOPP. The government and the police force both changed as a result of devolution.
Understanding the Devolution of Power
For centuries, empires, kingdoms, and dynasties have fought over power, a dynamic phenomenon. Power gives an individual the ability to affect the outcomes they want. It is mostly assumed to be a totalitarian quality, which can only be possessed singularly at a time. However, with the emergence of democracy and the public’s demand for control, the working mechanism of power had to change. That is when the devolution of power occurred. This transfer of power and funding from national to local government proved fruitful in many young democracies in Latin America, East Asia, and Africa.
Summarizing the phenomenon, the devolution of power is re-shaping or re-structuring an already existing form of government to provide better and more reliable administration to the public. It is an important prospect as the decision-making power is with the local people, communities, and businesses.
Key Elements of the Devolution Plan
Following the coup, Musharraf outlined his future policy goals in a seven-point agenda that included restoring national confidence and morale; strengthening the federation while eliminating inter-provincial disharmony; reviving and restoring investor confidence; establishing law and order and delivering swift justice; reconstructing and depoliticizing state institutions; establishing swift and universal accountability; and devolving power to the grassroots level.
Musharraf established the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) in November 1999 to develop and carry out the programme. In March 2000, the NRB passed the Local Government Plan (LGP) 2000, which implemented the major concepts of the 2001 DOPP.
The following five “Ds” were essential to its success:
1. Devolution of political power
2. Decentralisation of administrative authority
3. Decentralisation of management tasks
4. Dispersion of the power-authority nexus
5. Distribution of resources to district levels.
The Devolution of Power Plan 2001 laid the groundwork for the local government development of a three-tiered structure for municipal administration in Pakistan.
Three-Tier Local Government
The plan established three levels of local administration in Pakistan: districts, tehsils (sub-districts), and union councils. Each tier had its own elected officials, including district nazims (mayors), tehsil nazims, and union nazims.
Previously controlled by the provinces, district governments (the second tier) received new authority and revenue in the areas of agriculture, health, education, community development, information technology, finance, and planning in 2001.
Most of the duties of the old municipal authority, including providing water, sanitation, roads, and trash disposal, were delegated to the town/taluka administrations (the intermediate tier).
The third-tier union councils were supposed to oversee service delivery and minor infrastructure improvements. Some local taxes were collected by union councils and sent directly to the district for funding.
The members at each level of government were elected in local elections. The initiative attempted to ensure that these elections were fair and open to everyone in the community.
Electoral
The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in an effort to engage young people. It also mandated a certain level of education for nazim (mayor) candidates. Candidates for district nazim and town/taluka nazim (mayor) positions were required to submit a manifesto. Pakistan’s elections were now handled not by individual provinces but by the federal Election Commission.
Female Participation
Allocation of reserved seats and quotas was a pivotal sign of inclusivity and equity for women. The DOPP boosted the percentage of reserved seats for women to 33 percent across the board. About 24,000 seats for women were therefore established in local governments throughout the nation thanks to the DOPP. Historically, just 5% of seats in city councils were set aside for women. Due to conservative social views, women were barred from voting in several sections of NWFP and Balochistan.
Nearly 22,000 women were elected (including those returning uncontested), showing that the availability of reserved seats encouraged women to engage in the political affairs of the nation. There was a doubling in the number of women elected to the positions of nazim and naib nazim between 2001 and 2005, from 16 to 32.
In the province of Sindh, for example, the number of female district nazims increased from two in 2001 to four in 2005. There were just 1.4% female candidates for District and town/taluka nazim positions throughout the country.
Administrative Changes
The divisional layer between districts and province administration was removed. Senior District Coordination Officer (DCO) was to report to nazim (mayor) and interact with provincial government via the latter. The office of the Deputy Commissioner was removed. Elimination of the Magistracy was crucial in Pakistan because province administrations exerted influence over districts via district administrators who simultaneously had judicial authority.
The mayor was now the head of the local government and had broad executive and fiscal responsibilities. The legislation mandated a system of checks and balances that allowed voters to recall their elected leaders and give government employees legal redress against the arbitrary or unlawful commands of nazims (mayors).
A Provincial Finance Commission was established to distribute provincial funds to local jurisdictions in accordance with each area’s demographics, economic standing, and other factors.
Police
The Police Act of 1861 was repealed after nearly 150 years, and the zila nazim (District Mayor) was given authority over law and order. However, the District Police Chief remained accountable to his professional hierarchy on issues of crime prevention, investigation, and force management.
In the event of a disagreement between the Police Chief and the District Mayor, the District Public Safety Commission, which is made up of elected and appointed members, may step in to mediate the situation. To address major complaints against police, a Police Complaint Authority was established.
Community Groups
There was also the introduction of Citizen Community Boards (CCB) during the Local Government Ordinance 2001. This granted the citizens residing within their respective localities to participate and volunteer in developmental activities that would benefit the community as a whole.
The apportionment of a reserved budget that would help with the proposed projects was issued. Numerous infrastructural ambiguities such as basic services, sanitation, water, and building of roads were presumed to be fixed with the CCB initiative.
Before and throughout much of the DOPP era, local government associations (in the conventional sense) did not exist in Pakistan. A stronger feeling of unity and shared purpose among its elected officials emerged as a result of the DOPP’s emphasis on and support for local government.
The Local Councils Association of the Punjab (LCAP) was established in 2007 as the first such organisation in Punjab province. Since its foundation, LCAP has grown into a preeminent national organisation, making its voice heard by provincial and federal administrations and giving local democracy a stronger foothold in every region of the country.
New local government associations were established in Sindh, Balochistan, and the North-West Frontier (Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa) when LCAP was implemented there. Later, in November 2009, a nationwide local government organisation was created.
Implementation of the Devolution Plan
In 2001, elections were conducted in two stages for several local government positions. In the first stage, eligible adults voted for candidates running for posts in several categories at the Union Council (UC) level. According to the law, union council mayors and their deputies (nazimeen and naib-nazimeen) were automatically appointed to district and tehsil councils.
In the second round, council leaders at the district and tehsil levels (the nazimeen and naib-nazimeen respectively) were elected in a round of indirect voting. They were elected by all of the UC nazimeen, naib-nazimeen, and councillors in the area. Union, tehsil, and district councils amounted to a total of 6,425 under the 2001 Devolution Plan. The overall number of candidates elected against various groups (women, minorities, peasants and workers, etc.) during the 2001-02 and 2005 local government elections was 206,087.
Lack of Representation
The majority of democracies have trouble striking a balance between catering to the will of the people and protecting the rights of minorities from being pushed to the sidelines. Pakistan has a sizable religious minority, but there are also numerous other underrepresented groups in the nation. The DOPP allocated seats for women, peasants (in rural regions), urban workers (in urban areas), and religious minorities in all provincial local government statutes.
Additional youth quotas were included in the local government acts of Punjab, Sindh, and KP, whereas professionals and social workers were given priority in Balochistan. Election procedures for reserved seats and the percentage of seats set aside for underrepresented groups vary by region. At the village and neighbourhood council levels, reserved seats in KP were openly contested.
Although candidates eligible to stand for reserved seats were not prohibited from competing for directly elected seats, only a small number of them managed to secure party endorsements to run in local elections in Punjab and Balochistan. In Sindh, reserved seats were filled via party lists. Since the goal was to ensure that women and members of other marginalised populations had at least some representation, the decision to set aside reserved seats proved fruitful.
The 18th Amendment
After Musharraf’s presidency came to an end, the era of a new democratically elected government began. The extensive devolutionary process was halted by the newly elected government, and Pakistan was unable to attain functional local governments for a protracted period. In 2010, during the governance of the Pakistan People’s Party, the parliament decided to pass the 18th amendment to the constitution.
The amendment was seen as a salvation from the excessively centralized autonomy that had dominated the governing structure for decades. Devolving this legacy and inaugurating the state-of-the-art distribution of governance, the revision was praised immensely throughout the country as the amendment required the creation of local governments to bring the central government closer to the people and communities.
Unfortunately, much to the public’s dismay, the lack of a constitutionally mandated time frame delayed local government elections. Each province did not align on the implementation of the local government elections, causing distress among the local administrative bodies as well as the public demands.
Balochistan was the first province to execute the program while the other three provinces at the time, Sindh, Punjab, and KP, kept delaying the elections because of the lack of political will among the ruling political elites. With the years passing by, the ambiguity kept increasing and by early 2016, the Supreme Court ruled the speeding up of the transfer of funds and authority to the local government.
Contrasting Provincial Execution of Devolution
The obvious variance in the implementation and conduction of equitable local government elections among the provinces is still deemed as a major hindrance in moving forward with the scheme. In the previous decade, it was observed that, unlike other provinces, KP had adopted the initiative and even extended the plan to low-tier villages and neighborhoods.
Sindh and Punjab both had to face a formidable asymmetrical and centrist political authority which was not in favor of practicing this scheme. Lastly, Balochistan adopted an optimistic stance to the implementation of the scheme, but the unfortunate lack of capacity and resources made the local offices in the region shut down.
Inevitable Governing Challenges
The existence of effective local governments is not possible without substantive fiscal and administrative devolution. Along with that, the need for capacity development plays a direct role in enhancing the responsiveness to managerial concerns. There’s a link between the issues of capacity and revenue generation. The greater capacity of the local governments will make them capable of raising their resources and those resources in turn will provide them with more effectiveness to address the concerns of their respective constituencies.
However, unfortunate circumstances strike once again due to the lack of willingness among the provincial ruling elites to go through with what the local governance initiatives demand. Furthermore, “service delivery”, which is an important aspect of helping people carry on with their lives, is drowning in unmet complaints.
With the local governments constantly going through a transitional phase, the resources and capacity curtailment mentioned above leaves the department of service delivery to minimal or null engagement. With the necessities of a community such as housing, sanitation, hospitals, and educational institutes facing an unprecedented rate of administrative and infrastructure deprivation, it is unlikely for any government to thrive economically, politically, and socially.
Conclusion
Pakistan’s attempts at adopting local governance have faced numerous challenges and hurdles, but it has also fostered opportunities for the marginalized. Offering a better understanding of the government’s working mechanism, this analysis sought to provide insight into the devolution plan in Pakistan.
Administrative complexities, fiscal restraints, and the need for capacity-building need to be tackled. However, the presence of these hurdles has not completely overshadowed the opportunities that have been provided so far. From fostering local empowerment, grassroots participation, and the potential for better-tailored policy solutions, the devolution of power initiative has at the very least given a sense of direction to the state of Pakistan.
The 18th Amendment was seen as a redemption to make up for the years of ruined infrastructure and administration. Many analysts and researchers suggest that introducing newer reforms and making sure that they are being implemented will bring Pakistan one step closer to economic, political, and social growth.
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