The passage of the Sindh Local Government Amendment Act 2021 in the Pakistan Peoples Party – (PPP) dominated Sindh Assembly in December last year triggered a major controversy in the province that led to a series of protests and sit-ins by the opposition parties. From the MQM-P to the PTI and the Jamaat-i-Islami to the PSP – they all demanded an immediate scrapping of the law, calling it another attempt to disempower Karachi and its local bodies’ representatives. This highly controversial and unpopular law has also been slammed by the civil society and the intelligentsia demanding financially and politically empowered local governments not just in Sindh but across Pakistan. The PPP also suffered a blow after the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s ruling which has clearly directed that the provincial government cannot take over the functions of the local governments. Bol News talks to four leading analysts about the controversial law and its dangerous implications.

Fahim Zaman

Former Karachi administrator

think the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) today is under a massive feudal diktat and this mindset tells them that they are above the law. The PPP feels that if powers are transferred to the lower level, the locals will be empowered and will ultimately challenge its way of governance.

All the political parties, including the PPP, need to democratise themselves. You cannot run a party or a government from your house. The PPP will never agree to devolve powers to the local government because, like all other political parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and others, it also feels threatened about losing throne in Sindh. There is hardly any leadership in the PPP today, no proper organisation at either the union councils (UCs) or at the tehsil level. There is corruption-cum-opportunism that we have been witnessing in Sindh.

Unfortunately, today it is not about giving service to the people in Sindh, Punjab and the rest of the country. Politics is all about making deals. The politicians have become deal makers. They want to gain and make as much money as possible. It is just a give-and-take policy. To be honest, people don’t really matter or feature at all in this political drama which includes extension of services, transfer posting of higher-ups for some gains. Until or unless the political parties are empowered by the people, this ugly system will prevail across the country.

Politics, in fact, has become a dirty word. Look at the elections held in 2018 when only a low turnout of 40-45 per cent was witnessed. This is a reflection on our rulers and how the citizens prefer to stay away from polls, so much so that they do not even bother to register their vote. There are only 18 million voters in Pakistan out of a total of 240 million population. And this is even more glaring because 50 per cent of the country’s population is 18 years of age. But they are not interested in who is in the saddle which is such a shame.

Mohammad Ali Kazi

Senior journalist

evolution of powers is not limited to Sindh. It has been raised in Punjab and Balochistan as well. The PTI transferred powers to the KP local government in its tenure in the province but the problems have been arising there too. I believe only former military ruler Pervez Musharraf gave maximum powers to the local governments for the first time in the history of this country. In my observation, dictatorship is always inclined to give more powers to the third tier (LGs) of the government while avoiding to empower the second tier (provincial governments) which was witnessed in the rule of Field Marshal Ayub Khan as well as during Zia-ul-Haq’s tenure.

In Pakistan, especially since the tenure of ex-Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo, members of the provincial and the national assemblies did a lot of development work in localities, though this is not the job of MNAs and MPAs. But as far as the political parties are concerned, they are unwilling or not prepared to share this authority with the local governments.

For instance, the Islamabad government on the one hand keeps clamouring about the powers given to the provincial governments under the 18th Amendment, but on the other it urges the provincial governments to transfer powers to the LGs. It (federal government) also asks for the provincial finance commission (PFC) award to be instituted. I do agree with it, but then why is the government reluctant in giving the national finance commission (NFC) award to the provinces? In the final analysis, it is a power struggle between the first, second and third tiers of the government.

Sindh often comes in the limelight because of a pitiable ethnic divide here. Waderas (landlords) ate up all funds etc, while there are ethnic divides in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and to some extent in Punjab also.   I am not a supporter of the PPP-led Sindh government, mind you, but the Nazims (mayor) of Musharraf –led LG system did not agree to transfer powers to towns and the towns did not want to delegate powers to the union councils.

barrister Zamir Ghumro

Political analyst and former advocate general of Sindh

here is a perception that the dictatorial forces always fan confrontation and agitation among the provincial and the local governments. The PPP removed both the LG systems introduced by dictators Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf in the past and now wants to develop the LG laws on the basis of consensus. But the opposition parties have stressed the need for re enforcing the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.

The PPP amended the prevalent law as per the wish of the Sindh governor Imran Ismail and it also has developed consensus with the Jamaat-e-Islami and have persuaded it to call off the month-long sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly. But now the PSP has staged a protest sit-in. So, what are these people trying to do?

I reckon it is not possible that people who are not elected hold the office of the chief minister. Only elected representatives have a clear-cut mandate to make laws after developing consensus with other parties and dispelling their reservations about the law.

The LG laws of the dictators resulted in creating serious differences and divides between people of Sindh. The PPP has the mandate to make the LG law without creating any differences among people.

The local government is a unit of the provincial government and the union committees should be empowered according to the Article 140-A and I have no two opinions about it. The LG should be provided administrative and financial authority under the Article 140-A and it should have its own taxation system to run it efficiently.

It is up to the discretion of the provincial government to give the PFC award but sadly it has not yet been implemented. According to the Constitution, there is no concept of giving a share of the NFC award to the PFC at all.

Prof Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed

Senior political analyst and Professor of politics

ll the powers had been in the domain of the federal government for such a long period of time. It was only after the continuous struggle in 2010 that the 18th Amendment was passed and some powers were transferred to the provincial government. The provincial government now has control over all the development projects and their budgets at their disposal. The devolution takes place when they have to filter down this money to the local government institutions. I think this is the main reason that the PPP is reluctant to empower the local bodies.

In our country, the parliamentary system revolves around the federal parliament, the national and provincial assemblies etc. The national and provincial assemblies make laws and the legislators make legislation to implement policies. However, development is an executive function which can be developed. It should be undertaken and fulfilled by the provincial government. If this is not done, the legislators will continue to get involved in the development process – either directly or indirectly – instead of making laws or focusing on policies. And because of that, they do not want to show interest in transferring the powers to the local bodies and want to maintain their control over the development projects which is harmful to the country’s progress.

It is not just an issue of the PPP-led Sindh government. I would say all political parties are unwilling to have the local government system in place. During the military rule, the military regime established its own local government system because of its own interests. The same case happened to the PML-N and the PTI, as well as the PPP.

It is difficult to say that the PPP has been losing its popularity and might also lose support in elections. But elections and electioneering have completely different dynamics. It cannot be assessed at this stage that it could win or lose the next elections. In the past too, the PPP faced serious corruption charges; party’s co-chair Asif Ali Zardari was called Mr. 10 per cent. But PPP made a majority government and without any coalition.