KARACHI: More than the topic of discussion ‘Empowering Local Governments: Essential for Strengthening Democracy’, during the second day of the 13th Karachi Literature Festival, the name on everyone’s lips was moderator Mubashir Zaidi’s, who could not show up. The organisers, Oxford University Press (OUP) volunteers announced his name several times and they kept a look out for him everywhere and called him. However, to kill time, OUP marketing director Raheela Baqai, too, came to sit on the moderator’s chair for pictures.

But since one of the panellists, none other than Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar was looking to leave early, the day was saved by seasoned journalist Mazhar Abbas. Himself a panellist, he also doubled as moderator. “Let’s hope, Mubashir has not been picked up,” he joked while putting the audience at ease almost immediately.

Setting the ball rolling, he then explained that in his 40 years of journalism, he had seen that nominated people within political parties could not provide the growth that those working with the local government could. “They come from the grassroots level, they lend the party maturity. Otherwise our political parties are just limited to holding sit-ins,” he said.

Responding to his statement, Mr Umar said: “The effectiveness of democracy is said to depend on the strength of its lowest tier, the one closest to the people. This is clear in our Constitution also and the local governments should have their own system. But if you forget what is there in the Constitution, you see Pakistan’s reality.”

On second day of KLF, lawyer Salahuddin Ahmed says decision-making should start from lowest level

The reality being that without a strong foundation you get a weak structure, he added.

“Pakistan is a multi-ethnic society. Tribes and baradris are strong here. The trust levels within kinship networks are strong but not so much across the kinship networks,” he said and explained how different languages and cultures divided people, who felt like they didn’t get their basic rights as development was also uneven.

“The worst human development indicators come from southern belts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and Balochistan, too, has clear linguistic lines. In Sindh, we are also not happy,” he added.

“The solution is there in Article 140-A [of the Constituion]. Make a system where people have faith in local bodies,” he said.

‘We need one regulator for entire city’

Mazhar Abbas then pointed out to the example of Karachi, where the mayor does not have control over the entire city. “The civic functions are divided [among various agencies]. Will the federal government give the mayor more power?” He asked.

To this, Asad Umar also brought up the example of Islamabad where, he said that the Capital Development Authority only had control over half of the capitol. “The rest are elite areas or areas where the people are so poor that no one even cares about them,” he said. “But we need one law and one regulator for the entire city. The regulator should have all powers, save policing. All else should be unified under one mayor, even private housing societies should operate under the same law,” he said.

Mazhar Abbas then pointed out that even after holding LG elections, it was usual to find the government dissolving the local bodies to bring in an administrator. He wondered how this common problem can be addressed.

Lawyer Salahuddin Ahmed then commented: “Governments don’t implement rules. Decision-making should start from the lowest level.”

He said that local governments help improve governance.

“They allow accessibility and strengthen confidence in citizens. The big political parties also see a need for local bodies. But,” he added “the colonial system is based on concentrating of power, not on efficiency. When our politicians come to power, they don’t want power devolvement or delegation of power,” he pointed out.

Mazhar Abbas also pointed out then that there were also political parties that had come up solely through local government work. He mentioned the PML-N and the MQM. “In fact, the MQM was first a student’s party from where they came to the local government,” he said before wondering aloud if the 15 years of democracy and peaceful transfer of power had even delivered?

To this the federal minister’s answer was an honest ‘no’. He added: “Is our system according to democracy? No! When parties here come to power, they don’t want to devolve power. They feel that they alone are powerful and they alone know the best.”

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2022