Local Bodies Dissolved. Good, Bad, or Ugly?

Posted on July 8, 2009
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Politics
42 Comments
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Adil Najam

In a dramatic but not entirely unexpected move, the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani has announced that all Local Bodies have been dissolved and the forthcoming Local elections have been postponed because of the law and order situation. Administrators will be appointed by the Provincial governments from the bureaucracy to replace Nazims until elections are held.

Meanwhile, according to APP, the Prime Minister also announced that the decision of appointing administrators did not mean that the local government system would be abolished. “It has been unanimously agreed by the provinces that administrators will be appointed and the local bodies elections will be held after the law and order situation improves,” he added.

In a decision with deep developmental implications, the twice-postponed national census was also postponed – yet again.

According to a report in The News that did not hide its own views on the issue:

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced dissolving the local governments throughout the country and postponed local bodies elections till improvement in the law and order situation. The decision would mean an effective return to the old ways of bureaucratic bigwigs lording over the masses, who would once again have no influence or say in the management of matters at the grassroots level.

The prime minister said non-political administrators would replace elected Nazims from August. He also revived the executive magistracy system in the country. “A decision to this effect has unanimously been taken by all the provinces and now I would consult the president on the subject and a decision is expected within four weeks,” he said while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday after chairing an Inter-Provincial Coordination meeting at the Prime Minister Secretariat.

Flanked by Sindh, Balochistan, NWFP chief ministers, governor of the NWFP, Punjab Provincial Minister for Local Government Dost Muhammad Khosa and Chief Executive of Northern Areas and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, the prime minister said it was also decided to postpone census till the end of the year. “We will take up this issue again by the end of the current year to review the situation in the country, as the NWFP government has requested to this effect as it is hard to hold census in the province due to insurgency in some areas of the province,” he said. The premier said there was demand that census should be held by the Army to ensure its transparency but the Army is engaged against militants. The prime minister said the government had also decided to postpone the local government elections till a favourable environment and to amend the Police Order 2002.

“The local government elections could not be held due to prevailing law and order situation in the country as there is insurgency in the NWFP and whenever there is an environment conducive for an election exercise it would be held,” he said. Gilani said the administrators would be non-political people and the provincial government would appoint them from the bureaucracy. “The appointment of the administrators is the prerogative of the provincial governments as we believe in the provincial autonomy,” he added.

He, however, said competent and neutral government officers would be appointed as administrators. He said there was consensus among the provinces that the magistracy system should be revived and for this necessary amendments would be made to the law. He said it was also decided in the meeting to amend the Police Order 2002 in the light of demands of the provincial governments according to the Constitution. He said in this regard, the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) and ministries concerned would be taken on board for formulating recommendations.

Asked whether the government would hold the local government elections on party basis or non-party basis, the prime minister replied the PPP in its election manifesto had clearly taken the line of party-based local government elections but the holding of the local government elections was a prerogative of the provincial governments and it was up to them to decide the mode of the elections. When asked about the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s opposition to dissolving the local governments, he said the Sindh chief minister would take them into confidence on the consensus decision of all the four chief ministers.

How do you react to this development and what it means for democracy and devolution in Pakistan. Was this necessary? Good? Bad? Or outright Ugly?

42 responses to “Local Bodies Dissolved. Good, Bad, or Ugly?”

  1. Syed Ali Raza says:

    thank you GEO,ARY,AAJ et al for feeding the ignorant AWAM of Pakistan with anti Musharaf propaganda & showing us all those videos of Zardari & Sharif holding hands, thanks to all u democracy loving lawyers who gave us this curse of a Govt, even though people with an iota of intelligence knew that these characters who had been tried twice & have little or no respect for democracy in their own parties are not good for Pakistan, could not do any thing.
    Pakistanis deserve every thing which comes to them!

  2. Meengla says:

    I will hold judgment on this one for now.
    1) The Litmus Test for the Local Bodies’ future was MQM’s stand and yet they too have endorsed the upcoming dissolution.
    2) Just because the system has more or less worked in Karachi does not mean that it has worked in a vast majority of Pakistani municipalities.
    3) The existing LBs were formed in 2002/3. By the Constitution the LBodies were going to be defunct–I don’t know the date–but there is no provision in Const. for ‘extending’ them. May be. Just may be. There could be a one-year extension?
    4) After the expiry of their terms new LB elections are required. Within 90 days?
    5) The law n Order situation is so bad the Presidents of Pakistan (Musharraf and Zardari) have been virtually confined to the Presidency–these are the people who are supposed to get the highest level of security. But forget them–they are the ‘high value target’. Even the national cricket team–upon arrival in Lahore after the World T20 Cup–had to be protected using c0mplicated deceptions.
    6) Contrary to what Pakistanis are saying, the Local Bodies’ representatives ARE politicians to their core and are the budding cadre for various political parties for move ‘upwards’ to Provincial and National level politics. So much so for a blanket condemnation of ‘all politicians’ by the unwitting blogspace.
    7) The current Local Bodies are dominated by military-backed elections of 2002 and it does not serve the purpose of either PPP or PMLN to let these people continue in power. This is pure politics and similar things would happen throughout the world. Politics is, above all, about being in power and power comes from being the incumbent.

    So….in light of what I say above, especially in light of the law n order situation, please come up with some solutions. Ranting against everything is convenient–but patently lazy.

  3. Raza says:

    Woww another way of milking more money from the failed system of commisioners……. now we will see jiyalas accros the country appointed as adminstrators…no one to be accountable …..keep going Mr. Zardari…….
    I am surprised how much intelligence is left in our PM & President’s Brains, if they have any.

  4. Adnan Ahmad says:

    Ugly, I would say. Because it takes us back to the old “Baabu Sahib” days where a deputy commissioner was a ruler by himself. Zaradri obviously would like that era to come back if one were to go by Larkana (!) local elections that PPP lost and because of which Nisar Khoro (a far better and stronger character than Qaim Ali Shah) lost his provincial ppp leasership. @anticorruption pretty much nails it. Since people have mentioned Karachi, I will use two extreme examples of last 2 mayors and ask has any so called bloody administrator from the past done half as much as these two?

    Given the Pakistani psyche and short memory, I ask how long would it take for Musharraf to come back as a triumphant leader? PPP is making sure that it doesn’t take that long.

  5. sanwal says:

    Outright Ugly….

    From the very first day after holding the office all the political parties PPP, PML (N), etc were trying to abolish the local government system. Because the first time in the history of Pakistan it was working for the benefit of the people and ordinary citizen were participating in the democratic process whole heartedly. I have no doubt that there were flaws in this system but if the central and provincial governments were sincer then they could have improved the transparency and establish vigorous Audit system.
    This is a lame excuse that Law and order situation is bad. In Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and most urban parts of NWFP, law and order situation is not going to improve much from what it is now and it never had been any better. So how long we will have to wait for law and order situation to improve enough that elections can be held.
    I just have one question that would government postpose National and Provincial elections too due to law and order situation and place administrators in their place for indefinite period of time. I don’t think so because then “DEMOCRACY” would be in danger.

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