WHILE the country’s political leadership rightly stresses the need for all institutions to work within their constitutional mandate, it often tends to forget this cardinal principle when dealing with the local and district governments.

The representative local bodies have been subjected to abrupt changes from time to time particularly in a game of musical chairs between civilian governments reluctant to empower them and authoritarian regimes seeking grassroots support to minimise popular support of the mainstream political parties.

And the provinces which have always struggled for ‘participatory federalism’ are denying the district/local governments of their legitimate political, financial and administrative autonomy. The MNAs and MPAs are averse to any such move that may tend to weaken their hold on their political constituencies.

Not only that. Under civilian rule in 2010, the local bodies were handed over to the bureaucrats while the provinces sought to amend the local bodies laws promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf. They are now trying to micromanage the local self-government.

Given the historical record, not many people were expecting a better arrangement from the provinces though it was for the first time, to quote a study by experts, that local body reforms were initiated by the federating units. All earlier moves came from the central governments. The provinces generally tend to monopolise all powers and authority conceded by Islamabad with no regard for the rights and responsibilities of the third tier of the federation.

The barrier is a social structure that sustains a constitutional arrangement but lacks certain democratic norms including denial of local self-governance guaranteed by the country’s constitution.

That is why the Social Policy Development Centre terms (SPDC) the latest local government reforms as ‘devolution without delegation’ (of required responsibility and authority), with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa being the lone exception.

In chapter four of its annual review for 2014-15 on ‘financing of urban social services delivery’ the SPDC stresses the need for ‘full financial autonomy’ to local governments, ‘consistent with the provisions of Article 140-A of the Constitution.’

The article says: “Each province shall by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments.”

That, the report says, implies that the octroi/zilla tax transfer from the general sales tax be transferred at one-sixth of the net revenues in the ninth NFC award, deliberations on which will start shortly. The study estimates such transfers to be in the range Rs200-220bn on the basis of the targeted GST revenue collection for the current fiscal year. This will represent its share of 15pc which will vary from province-to-province.

The SPDC study notes that KP’s share will be substantially higher because of ‘the wider range of local functions. The provincial government has already committed to a share of 35pc out of the development funds to the local bodies within its jurisdiction.

The report recommends that the historical bases of distribution to urban and rural governments respectively may be done at the district level. For the urban jurisdictions within a district, the same per capita transfer may be made.

The sharing formula at the district level may include the following criteria: share in collection of octroi historically, share in urban population of the province and fiscal equalisation through large transfers to the more backward districts. A similar formula could be evolved for horizontal transfers to district councils in the three provinces (excluding KP).

The uneven economic development of different provinces and regions within each province can be tackled much more efficiently by ‘participatory federalism’ at all tiers of representative governments which need to be empowered to resolve problems that can be resolved at their respective levels. The provincial and the district governments should also be accountable to each other to improve their respective performance in the true spirit of federalism.

It is widely recognised that both the federal and provincial governments have failed to provide essential civic facilities to the people. It is time to empower the masses to fend for himself. The best way to do it is through local/district governments/ communities which deliver all services at the door of the common citizens.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, March 23rd, 2016