Local bodies issue
While hearing the clubbed petitions of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) challenging Sections 74 and 75 of the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 and Section 18 of the Sindh Buildings Control Ordinance 1979 as violative of Articles 140-A, 3, 4, 9, 14, 16, 17, 19, 19A and 25 of the Constitution, the petitioners’ prayer to the Supreme Court (SC) was to declare the above sections of the Act and Ordinance as ultra vires of the Constitution, void ab initio and of no legal effect. Initially, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed, heading a three-member bench of the SC, overruled the objections of the SC’s Registrar’s Office to the PTI’s petition, directed the Office to register the petition along with the other identical ones and issued notices to the respondents, including the Sindh government, Attorney General of Pakistan and the Sindh Advocate General. Justice Ijazul Ahsan, a member of the bench, expressed what is in everyone’s mind based on past experience that both the federal and provincial governments were reluctant to devolve powers to the local government institutions. Ironically, he added, when in power no party seems in favour of devolving powers to the local level but only raises it when in opposition. As an example of the state of chaos reigning in the local bodies system, Justice Ahsan remarked that there is no coordination between the Capital Development Authority and the Islamabad Municipal Corporation in the federal capital. The CJP remarked that rendering local bodies’ powers to the provincial or federal governments is unlawful and against Article 140 of the Constitution. The constitution of local bodies was not a matter of likes or dislikes but vital. He observed that people were dying in the province of Sindh due to the devastating floods while Karachi was drowning in rainwater. There was no evidence, he continued, of anyone from the municipalities found on the roads to clear them of water or extend timely service to the people. Thousands of employees were drawing salaries amounting to billions of rupees from the Karachi Municipal Council but could not be seen anywhere for rescuing the affected people. They appeared to be merely ‘ghost’ employees. There was a time, the CJP reminded us, when municipal workers used to start cleaning the roads and streets at midnight. Where had such people gone, the CJP mused.
Successive civilian elected governments have shown a marked reluctance and foot dragging where devolution of powers to the local bodies are concerned. As reflected in the proceedings of the above case in the SC, both federal and provincial governments have been guilty of such practices. Some may argue that in our history, local bodies have been the favourite hobbyhorse and preferred means of garnering political support by all our military rulers. Hence the ‘allergy’ of civilian elected rulers to devolve powers to these. But this is not a valid argument. Just because military usurpers have hijacked the necessary local bodies institutions for their partisan political interests does not justify consigning these institutions to the waste paper basket. Citizens are better able to manage their neighbourhoods and readily approach their local councillors to have their complaints and grievances attended to. The further away from the citizen’s reach authority is in these matters, the more difficult it becomes. This obviously includes provincial chief ministers and ministers and in the case of the federal capital, the prime minister and federal cabinet members, who should in any case be concentrating on their area of responsibility and not be burdened by municipal tasks. The other anomaly in our history is the penchant for all governments to date, including military and civilian, to conduct local bodies elections on a non-party basis. This and the reluctance to empower local bodies when they are in existence stem from the same insecurity: provincial and federal politicians do not want to let go of the powers usurped from local institutions. Given this track record, perhaps the time has come to consider amending the Constitution to ensure local bodies exist, are empowered, and are elected on party basis since the ‘non-party’ elections eventually reveal the local bodies political affiliations anyway.
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