THE Supreme Court judgement overturning the premature dissolution of local governments in Punjab more than two years ago is a landmark decision since it establishes LGs’ fundamental right to complete their mandated term as provided by the law. The detailed judgement, released on Monday, on a petition challenging the dissolution of LG institutions, observes that “…[T]he local governments’ offices in Punjab were political Governments and had fundamental rights as provided in the Constitution to run for their duration as provided by law”. It points out that the LG system “established ... through Provincial Legislation when translate[d] into an elected local government for a specified period of time by law cannot be dissolved before the period of its expiry.…” The court had already restored the LGs through a short order issued in March, declaring their dissolution unconstitutional. The order had ruled that by dissolving the LGs, the Punjab government had disenfranchised people who voted for their representatives. Such an action was “in conflict with Article 17 of the Constitution, read with Articles 140A, 7 and 32….”

The short court order had been expected to knock some sense into the ruling party and restore the dissolved LGs to let them complete their remaining tenure. Regrettably, that didn’t happen, and the provincial government chose to wait for the detailed judgement rather than grab the opportunity to fix its errors and reinstate its democratic credentials. Although the decision leaves it with no option but to restore the dissolved LGs, it is unlikely to walk this path. Instead, the PTI government is more likely to go for a review of the decision, despite little or no chance of its reversal, in order to buy time until the five-year term of the current LG expires in January next year. That none of the four provinces have functional LGs at the moment (nor do they appear to be in a mood to organise elections anytime soon) speaks volumes for politicians’ aversion to the third tier of government and their reluctance to share administrative and financial power with local public representatives, especially if they belong to the opposition parties. It is, therefore, not surprising to see frequent premature rollbacks of local democracy, invalidating public mandates every few years. Whether or not Punjab acts on the court’s decision, the judgement is an important victory for the people and local democracy as it is expected to ensure that public mandate is not cut short in future.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2021