Local Government System (merged)

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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The local govrenment system set up by the Musharraf government may yet be in it’s infancy, but it was one of the boldest steps taken in that it got rid of the old colinial style DC system. Since the return of democracy politicians and bureaucrats have been trying to reassert their lost power in this new set up. That must be thwarted to ensure that local autonomy is protected and enhanced.

http://www.dawn.com/2003/04/27/nat4.htm

Bureaucracy’s powers trimmed, claims NRB

National Reconstruction Bureau Chairman Daniyal Aziz has said the district government system will in no way infringe upon provincial autonomy. “In fact, the system has curtailed the autonomy of bureaucracy which is now creating trouble by engaging Nazims and ministers in a dispute over division of powers,” he said at the “Hal-o-Ahwal” programme of Quetta Press Club here on Saturday. He said the Nazims and ministers should work in the spheres defined for them in the law, and none should exceed their limits when performing official business. He dispelled the impression that the district government system was aimed at paving the way for a unitary form of government in the country. Without naming name, he said some “mischievous” person was active to harm the system that was designed to ensure transfer of powers at the grass-roots level. He claimed that the Musharraf government had taken a bold step by replacing the century-old “alien system” with the one that included the common man in the decision-making process “when policies are framed and projects implemented.” He acknowledged facing difficulties, but said it did not mean “we should wind up the system”. He said the Nazims enjoyed real powers, more than the bureaucracy or the police, and this represented a real change. Separately, speaking at the local bodies convention organized by the Councillors Awami Ittehad, Balochistan, he declared that the government will not allow elected MNAs and MPAs to interfere in the working of the new local governments.

He said that members of the national and provincial assemblies were trying to interfere in the local governments affairs. The government will make all-out efforts to check their intervention, he added. He said the MNAs and MPAs wanted to promote their politics on the basis of constructing streets and drains using public money as they did in the past. “We have changed the system and now MNAs and MPAs can only identify schemes regarding electricity, gas and telephone,” the NRB chief announced. He said all the development works at the district, town and union council level will be carried out through the local governments. Mr Aziz said the bureaucracy was not ready to surrender its powers that it enjoyed in the past, which was why the local governments were facing problems. However, he said the government will not allow the bureaucracy to create hurdles in the working of these institutions. City District Nazim, Mohammed Rahim Kakar, informed the NRB chief about the problems of the district government and sought his assistance in resolving them.

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Brureaucracy should be a mere servent of the people, unfortunately in Pakistan they have become the masters

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Bhadsha: *
Brureaucracy should be a mere servent of the people, unfortunately in Pakistan they have become the masters
[/QUOTE]

The Federal bureaucracy is hugely overmanned, way to corrupt and powerful and needs to be cut down to size. As powers are devolved to the districts there is no need for such a large number of bureaucrats in the center, whose jobs can be done by people employed at the local level. This should also help alleviate some of the concerns of people who want more resources and development for smaller provinces.

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Good post Malik. I like the plan, but it has some big problems:

  1. The District Councils don’t have much administrative or financial powers. They do on paper, but practically they don’t

  2. The plan doesn’t take ito acount intra provincial and intra district Law and order problems

  3. It wasn’t followed on by a devolution of power to the Provinces

  4. Pakistani politicians have very little tolerance of the opposition, so in Sindh the MQM has targetted the MMA’s Karachi mayor who almost everyone agrees has done a good job and could do better if given more powers. While in Sarhad, The MMA has targetted the district Nazims who are mostly from the Opposition.

  5. They don’t have a good internal system of accountability

  6. The Jamali/Musharraf government damaged the system by using the District Nazims to promote the referendum and then to promote Q party candidates. To add to that in a another reversal they allocated money to each MPA and MNA for development Work. I don’t think other countries allow MNA’s and MPAs to do that.

Here are some links on problems and difficulties the plans faced, it includes a full interview with Danyal Aziz NRB Chairman:

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Zakk, thanks for those articles and the points you raise. The more I read on this topic, the more interesting and significant it seems, as this (the local government plan) could have dramatic impacts on the governance of Pakistan if allowed to work according to it's true spirit. I'll address the points you make later in the thread, but I was reading the first article you posted it and it provides some fascinating facts.

At the moment there is quite clearly a battle for control going on between the local governments and the provincial governments, which has largely gone unnoticed, with the pro-government and opposition provincial governments all trying to wrest power (back) from the districts. But at the moment it seems that President Musharraf is playing a waiting game, and will no doubt have to tackle this situation sooner or later as the Devolution plan is one of the cornerstone policies of his government. Your article states that the weakness in this is that the local governments were elected on a non-party basis while the assemblies were elected on a party basis, but I am not entirely convinced by that argument. Even though the Nazims etc stood for election on a non-party basis, everyone knows they had and continue to have party affiliations. This is more about the control of power and resources, with provincial governments wanting to maintain a centralised set up depriving the districts the autonomy they deserve. The JI Nazim of Karachi (whom even I can testify has done a great job in Karachi) states this quite clearly:-

They (ministers) are interfering in my work and in the affairs of the city government, it is wrong and illegal interference," complains city nazim, Naimatullah Khan. "They want to destroy the system but we won't allow it to happen because this system is in favour of the masses. We will resist," he vowed. He also alleged that many of Karachi's government officials had been transferred without taking him into confidence in a direct move aimed at disrupting his work.

What is encouraging about that statement is not just that a JI/MMA Nazim is standing up for President Musharraf's Devolution plan, but that he is exposing the greed of provincial politicians. I agree that more powers should have been devolved from the center to the provinces, as they have been devolved from the provinces to the districts, and I believe this has/was promised by the Musharraf government. But by the same token provincial politicians should be prepared to accept the devolution of powers to the districts. Again your first article finishes with this statement:-

Political observers feel that MPA's and provincial ministers should fight for more provincial rights from the central government rather than take on a confrontation with the nazims. "They need to fight for provincial autonomy rather than trying to take back whatever powers have been devolved to the district level," maintains Dr Jaffar

More later...

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Good points Malik, The News on Sunday has a a section called Shehr, which deals with issues like the local government. It's a good read, You are right when you say the political platform issue is not really the root cause of the problem after all, the JI/MMA contested from a Al Khidmat Platform, while the PPP contested from Awam DOst platform, and everyone knew which party they reprsented. It is very much a question of power. The MP's and MNA's of the 90's generally contested for local political issues. I know of several people who would have been fine law makers and used to attend many sessions of the Provincial Assembly. But, locals elected MP's and MNA's for things like permits,m and gas transfers of patwaris. The most successful MP's of the 90's were people who used to spend most of their time in their constiuency doing "sifarish" or doing others work. Those are all the roles of local government. MNA's and MP's jobs should be to run their committee's and serve as an effective voice for their contituency in the making or unmaking of laws.

I have one disgreement though in a general sense, just because the LG system is good doesn't mean those elected to it are neccessarily all better then the existing elite, their are reports of many rotten apples. After all the existing political elite are largely a product of Zia ul Haq's 80's LG system.

Also two more flaws I see in the system, The Judiciary is not an Independant enough to be an effective check on the affairs of local Nazims, secondly I don't like the system of indirect election of the District Nazim, whenever you have a small electoral college in a place like Pakistan you end up with vote buying. It would be either better to have a more effective Election Commission presence in Districts or to make the Nazim election diirect.

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I had this question perhaps Zakk or Malik can answer it. I know from before if th MNA didn't like the SHO, he could get him transferred. does the MNA still have that authoriry or not?

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Bhadsha, MP’s are still doing transfers, but the passge of the new Police Act (which I should add may also not stick around because of the huge number of opponents) power will be transferred away from The Bureacrats and the Police will follow the more independant Japanese model.

I am actually a member of a yahoo group on Pakistan Governance, the issue is interesting and has been discussed, the LG system has had successes and failures, but it’s still a big imrpovement on the existing system. The only flaw is resource mobilisation, some districts even when flly independant are totally resource starved and need provincial or federal support, that is then used as a way of controlling the locals.

Those who want a lot more information on the subjects should check out the National Reconstruction Bureau Web site.
I think it is: http://www.nrb.gov.pk

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I hope this system sticks...cause I have atleast witnessed two cases where the SHO was good, and was removed because he wasn't towing the MP's line. on the one side (I included) blame the corrupt police but on the other if one of them tries to do good work, and MP just has him moved. well lets see what happens.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Zakk: *
Good points Malik, The News on Sunday has a a section called Shehr, which deals with issues like the local government. It's a good read, You are right when you say the political platform issue is not really the root cause of the problem after all, the JI/MMA contested from a Al Khidmat Platform, while the PPP contested from Awam DOst platform, and everyone knew which party they reprsented. It is very much a question of power. The MP's and MNA's of the 90's generally contested for local political issues. I know of several people who would have been fine law makers and used to attend many sessions of the Provincial Assembly. But, locals elected MP's and MNA's for things like permits,m and gas transfers of patwaris. The most successful MP's of the 90's were people who used to spend most of their time in their constiuency doing "sifarish" or doing others work. Those are all the roles of local government. MNA's and MP's jobs should be to run their committee's and serve as an effective voice for their contituency in the making or unmaking of laws.

I have one disgreement though in a general sense, just because the LG system is good doesn't mean those elected to it are neccessarily all better then the existing elite, their are reports of many rotten apples. After all the existing political elite are largely a product of Zia ul Haq's 80's LG system.

Also two more flaws I see in the system, The Judiciary is not an Independant enough to be an effective check on the affairs of local Nazims, secondly I don't like the system of indirect election of the District Nazim, whenever you have a small electoral college in a place like Pakistan you end up with vote buying. It would be either better to have a more effective Election Commission presence in Districts or to make the Nazim election diirect.
[/QUOTE]

Zakk, I am sure there are many rotten apples in the present LG system that started their local political careers during the Zia era, but how do we clear them out? Did the Musharraf Devolution plan lay down criteria to sift these sorts of people out i.e. educational qualification, financial declarations etc? I don’t think an accountability drive has begun at the local level – maybe it’s to great a task to start at the moment when the focus is on center politics?

I agree with you it was wrong to go for the indirect election of Nazim’s, but this I believe was a late change to the Devolution plan which had originally envisaged Nazim’s/Naib Nazim’s to be elected directly? Maybe vested powers in the bureaucratic and establishment set-up in Islamabad feared that directly elected ‘heads of government’s’ (albeit at the District level) would set a precedent at the provincial or national level, and/or create to powerful district leaders with a direct mandate from the people? As for the judiciary, it has never really been an effective check on other branches of government at provincial or federal level, and it needs to start asserting it’s independence rather than be a silent observer. It could lead by example and first conduct an accountability drive amongst the judiciary, and start setting goals to tackle the enormous back log of judicial cases that need hearing and resolution. Only then can it start checking on the affairs of the Nazim’s and local governments.

In regards to some of the earlier points you made in the thread. If under the Devolution plan the local governments are supposed to have wide financial and administrative powers, why are they not allowed to exercise these in reality? Daniyal Aziz in his interview does state that:-

*** The money for sectors which were previously under the purview of the provincial governments, such as healthcare, education, etc., have been allocated to the districts. Additionally, the districts have their own budgets.***

Are these new financial powers being circumvented by MNA’s and MPA’s still trying to hold onto funds they have allocated by the provincial and national government. According to the NRB chairman this practice has been severely cut back, but obviously not far enough?

More later…

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[QUOTE]
Did the Musharraf Devolution plan lay down criteria to sift these sorts of people out i.e. educational qualification, financial declarations etc? I don’t think an accountability drive has begun at the local level – maybe it’s to great a task to start at the moment when the focus is on center politics?
[/QUOTE]

The Educational Requirements for a District Nazim are metriculation at the minimum. I would imagine they would have to file statements of assets before they applied, but you need a continuous system of monitoring. after all many people are fine till they get power!

[QUOTE]
but this I believe was a late change to the Devolution plan which had originally envisaged Nazim’s/Naib Nazim’s to be elected directly?
[/QUOTE]

Yup it was, the argument I heard used, was that the cost of contesting a direct election is more ( that maybe true, but theperson elected is more reprsetative)

[QUOTE]
It could lead by example and first conduct an accountability drive amongst the judiciary, and start setting goals to tackle the enormous back log of judicial cases that need hearing and resolution. Only then can it start checking on the affairs of the Nazim’s and local governments.
[/QUOTE]

Well the Judiciary is still controlled by thee Executive, it has almost no fiscal autonomy and transfers and lower court judges are answerable to the Governor not to there High Courts.

[QUOTE]
If under the Devolution plan the local governments are supposed to have wide financial and administrative powers, why are they not allowed to exercise these in reality?
[/QUOTE]

They do on paper, but they are easily controlled. First of all similar to the Provinces, the Districts have no revnue collection system, the same way the Provinces taxes are collected by the Federal government and then divided between the Provicnes and Federal government through the NFC. Administratively, the District Nazim still has less powers then the old DC's.

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Karachi suffers on - and on

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm
By Ardeshir Cowasjee

Those who have the interests of this city at heart, those who feel for the suffering of its teeming millions, and those who feel they can and wish to help may read on. The rest should turn the page. Big money supports and motivates the wrong factions.

Dawn Metropolitan, which covers Karachi, frontpages the multifarious sufferings of the people of this city on a daily basis. Yesterday’s leading headlines read: ‘Installation attacked as water crisis deepens’, ‘Power shuts prolong miseries in hot weather’, and a photograph depicted ‘Shopkeepers in Saddar stand in front of their shops twiddling their thumbs as they remain without electricity for hours on end everyday.’

And we should all remember that water riots have very often contributed to the fall of governments.

At a seminar organized by the NGO Shehri in October 2001, Karachi’s newly elected city nazim, Naimatullah Khan, promised, in his address to the gathering, that in the future Shehri and other such organizations and individuals would have no need to file public interest litigation cases in the superior courts as he would personally ensure that concerns and complaints are promptly addressed. He praised Shehri for its splendid efforts to protect public rights and asked others to emulate its example.

Sadly, it has slowly dawned on Naimatullah that good intentions get one nowhere. For eighteen months, he has battled against overwhelming odds that have thwarted his plans. The ‘beradari’ elected to the provincial assembly six months ago have realized that all useful and beneficent lawful power lies in the hands of the local government - land management, building control, water and sewerage, solid waste management, roads, development projects, and so forth. There is no ready money to be made doing the job which the representatives were elected to do - to legislate in the people’s interest. Thus, efforts are being made to ensure that the devolution process fails, one effort being that the home secretary has informed Nazim Naimtullah that his life is in danger.

Then we have the control of the highly lucrative Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), right now floating in limbo. At the end of 2002, after a year’s delay, the devolution of this critical department to the towns and city governments was carried out - but only on paper. Town building control officers, with their teams, were officially assigned to 18 towns, and a small central KBCA was designated to operate under the executive district officer (Works) of the city district government of Karachi. In practice, no one has moved to the towns, nor do the town nazims exercise any control over the land and buildings of their area. The chief controller of buildings, the twice retired and re-employed (though unqualified, as he is neither an architect nor an engineer) Brigadier Ahmedullah Sharif Nasir, has decided to operate under the patronage of the governor, bypassing both the city nazim and the chief minister, and is consequently a power unto himself.

Power has been devolved without adequate sources to sustain that power, thus the city and town governments are having difficulty in generating legitimate funds for the development of this fast-growing city. They are consequently susceptible to any environment-degrading ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme promoted by the numerous mafias that operate in Karachi, one recent example, under the influence of the builders, being the resurrection of the ‘commercialization of roads’ policy.

For the past 25 years, by resolutions passed by the governing body of the Karachi Development Authority, without any technical studies or planning, residential plots on six major roads in the city were subjected to on-again and off-again ‘ribbon commercializations’ - Sharah-e-Faisal, Tariq Road, Rashid Minhas Road, Sharah-e-Pakistan, University Road and Nazimabad ‘A’ Road. Those living on the surviving residential plots on these roads, sandwiched between badly - often illegally - constructed commercial plazas suffer incessantly and horribly, primarily from the unavailability of essential utilities such as water, sewerage and electricity, and also from noise and air pollution caused by generators, air-conditioning plants and traffic, lack of parking facilities, traffic congestion on the residential side-streets, lack of privacy, restrictions of light and ventilation, an increase in crime, and so on and so forth. The constitutional rights of residents occupying residential plots have been blatantly violated.

The last governing body of the KDA (of which I was a member) realized the folly and danger of this non-technical method of providing increased commercial spaces in the expanding city and in 1999 directed the master plan department to conduct surveys and develop an appropriate urban renewal/revitalization plan that would eliminate the damage caused by the strip commercialization policy. The new Building Regulations 2002 stress the necessity of a ‘uniform commercialization policy’ formulated ‘on the basis of a comprehensive study of various urban areas’, and have proscribed the commercialization of individual plots outside the policy.

Architect (but not a professional urban designer or town planner) Syed Zaigham Jaffery, is the Executive District Officer of Master Plan Group of Offices of the city government and the man on top of the pyramid of town planning in our city of over 1,700 sq km with a population of 13 million (projected to increase to over 20 million by 2015). As such, he is heir to Karachi’s sole previous professional and able town planner, Ahmed Ali, who died many years ago (some say he was murdered) and shoulders the responsibility for correctly guiding the non-technical citizens and elected or non-elected administrators on what must rightly be done for the physical development and master planning of this mega-city.

Though a fiscally honest man, he has succumbed to political and bureaucratic pressures and has prompted a fresh commercialization of roads policy, adding nine roads in residential areas to the six already designated - Clifton Road, Khayaban-e-Jami, North Nazimabad Road, Khalid Bin Walid Road, Jamaluddin Afghani Road, Allama Iqbal Road, Sir Syed Ahmed Road, Shaheed-e-Millat Road and Shahrah-e-Jehangir.

Zaigham feels that he has done his professional duty by including a proviso in the policy that the monies generated will be utilized for the enhancement of the infrastructure in the residential localities degraded by the arbitrary change of land use, conveniently forgetting that such useless proviso has existed for commercialization undertaken for the past two decades and for the recent ‘regularization of illegal buildings’ exercise. He also forgets that the KDA/KBCA has admitted that the Rs1.3 billion generated from commercialization in 1989-99 was swallowed up by the salaries and expenses of profligate administrations, as were the ‘regularization’ monies.

The devastating ‘regularization’ ordinance of 2002 promulgated by flip-flop governor Mohammadmian Soomro (now the good-boy Senate chairman) expired on March 18. The history of the destruction of this city, if ever written, will not forgive him. In the space of one year, it wrought immense and irreversible damage to the built environment of Karachi. The KBCA has bent, distorted and misused the ordinance to heap benefits on the builders’ mafia. Examples: the repair of a severely damaged building, Sumya Terrace, near the PTV station; regularization without provision of adequate parking; under-calculation of regularization penalties, thus depriving the government coffers of funds; non-provision of safety measures (fire-escapes, fire-sprinkler systems in parking basements); extension of the facility to illegalities constructed after the cut-off date - the list is pretty much endless.

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The issue of power-sharing between the district and provincial governments in the NWFP is generating a heated debate

By Hasan Khan

There are signs the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government in the NWFP is uncomfortable with the elected administrations running the district governments. The MMA is not ready to share power under the devolution plan – an attitude that threatens the implementation of devolution plan in the province.

The NWFP chief minister belongs to Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), which is a major component of the MMA. The JUI-F had boycotted the local government elections back in 2001. While its leadership today reiterates it was the right decision, it left the field open for other parties to claim the nazim and other local government positions.

“As the ruling party in the NWFP (JUI-F) has no representation at the district level, the provincial government is interfering in the affairs of local governments and creating hurdles for them,” says Azam Khan Afridi, District Nazim Peshawar Metropolis, who belongs to Pakistan People’s Party.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who is currently the secretary- general of the MMA, is the most vocal critic of the devolution plan. He calls it an “encroachment on provincial rights” and “something which should be done away with.”

On the other hand, the NWFP Minister for Local Government, Sardar Idrees, who joined JUI after getting assurance of getting a cabinet seat, says the provincial government has no intention to pack up the local government system. “We want to strengthen the system and remove the loopholes in it,” Idrees tells TNS. “The government intends to create a mechanism for checks and balances to avoid misuse of public funds and authority by individuals.”

Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has also been seeking to dispel the impression that his government is working against the local government system. “Certain elements are creating an impression that the (provincial) government will roll back the district government system,” a handout quoting the chief minister says. It adds the district governments have some good aspects that would be promoted – as weaknesses will be rectified. The process of fine-tuning the district government system will be undertaken in a democratic manner, it says in an effort to reassure everyone.

But the effort loses credibility when Chief Minister Durrani goes on a visit of Kohat, Bannu, Charsadda, Mardan, Karak and some other districts, but no district nazims are invited to the meetings he holds there.

A number of nazims have publicly aired their concern over this attitude of the chief minister. The nazims have established a forum to fight for the protection of the local government system. Called the NWFP District Nazimeen Forum, it is headed by Pervez Khattak, district Nowshera Nazim, and a leader of Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao.

“Earlier the nazims enjoyed all powers according to the Local Government Ordinance, but the situation took a u-turn soon after the MMA came to power in the NWFP,” Khattak says in a a talk with TNS.

According to the original devolution plan, twelve departments were to be devolved to the district government with full financial and administrative powers in the hands of nazims, the Nowshera nazim explains. The heads of these departments were made subordinate to the elected members of the district council and the elected nazims headed various committees formed for supervision of the activities of these departments.The MMA government reconstituted the departmental committees and the respective executive divisional officers (EDOs) were made chairman of these committees.

“The district nazims have been asked to consult these committees if they have any problems related to the department, but the committees are not subordinate to district nazims,” Khattak says. “The notification said if the elected people had any reservation, they should inform the committee concerned, which would take the decisions in the ‘public’ interest. This is typical of the bureaucracy and the MMA wants to revive that system.”

Khattak holds the MMA has no authority to introduce amendments to a system which enjoys protection under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. “No one can effect any change without the prior approval of the president,” he says.

Peshawar District Nazim Azam Afridi adds the MMA government has drastically reduced the nazims’ powers. “The provincial assembly is supposed to make laws and frame policies, which would be implemented by the district governments,” he says. “If members of the national and provincial assemblies are interested in street politics and in doing developments work, they should resign and contest the local government elections which are scheduled to be held in two years’ time.”

It is easy for people to see a link between the criticism of the local government system and the bureaucracy. The steps so far taken in this regard by the provincial government re-empower and strengthen the bureaucracy.

The provincial government has deprived the districts council of power to transfer and post their officers. Under the devolution plan the transfer and posting into or out of a district was to be made with the consent of the district nazim. Nazims claim that the government did not bother to consult them.before major reshuffling in the health and education sectors in recent times.

The district Nazim Karak challenged the transfer and posting made by the provincial government in court. He pleads he was not consulted by the provincial government while transferring officers from his district. The court has given a decision in the favour of the nazim and advised the provincial government to follow the rules in the future.

The constitution of departmental committees headed by the respective EDOs and awarding sweeping financial powers to the district coordinating officers (DCOs) by appointing them as chairmen of the district development advisory committees (DDAC), are two steps that empower the bureaucracy and weaken the hold of elected representatives.

There are reports that following the negative attitude of the MMA administration towards the local governments, bureaucracy has started ignoring the district governments. A nazim says the DCOs are no more interested in attending the council meeting or taking any decision seriously.

“Earlier police would submit a daily crime report (DCR) to nazims, but I have not received a DCR since many months,” Afridi says. He says he has not been called to any meeting on law and order despite the fact that law and order was the responsibility of the district council.

Pervez Khattak points out the fight for power between the members of the district and provincial governments is something natural, since both of them are looking to retain or expand their votebank by launching development schemes. To the ordinary man though, who solves the problem is not important – provincial or district government. So long as the problem is solved.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Zakk: *
Bhadsha, MP's are still doing transfers, but the passge of the new Police Act (which I should add may also not stick around because of the huge number of opponents) power will be transferred away from The Bureacrats and the Police will follow the more independant Japanese model.
[/QUOTE]

Who exactly is opposing the Police Act? The Districts governments, provinical governments, the federal opposition parties or all of them? As I understand it the Police Act is one of the quite revolutionary steps of the Musharraf government that would overhaul the Pakistani police forces and make them more accountable to the people, rather than politicians and influential individuals. It is this kind of corrupt and inefficient practice that has contributed to great injustices against the common Pakistani citizen, so I am puzzled as to why such reforms would be opposed?

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Who exactly is opposing the Police Act? The Districts governments, provinical governments, the federal opposition parties or all of them? so I am puzzled as to why such reforms would be opposed?

Hmm The Feudal opposition, I think your referring to both PML and PPP!
But the Opposition was basically from the Bureacracy. The provincial and Federal government, people in positions of power which exercised magestrial powers or ensured Ministers or Corp Commanders could transfer whom ever they saw fit, all opposed the act, which basically made the Police Indpendant in the way of the Japanese model. The Japanese model has a 90% crime detection and conviction rate. While the Pakistan model has a 10% detection and conviction rate ( I maybe wrong about the exact stats!). Anyway, the Police would be run through at the top Federal, provincial and District Police Commisisons, which would have a fixed number of people on them. Some being technocrats. Within that you'd have specialised departments, and from the stakeholders side youd have Citizen police liason Commissions at the district level, to work with the police. The idea is extremely good, but the costs of reforming the Police are enormous, and Japan is not as politically unstable as Pakistan. There are times when DC's used their multiple powers to control rallies from getting out of hand. That will no longer be the case. Officers will be also be guaranteed fixed tenures in a posting, so an SHO would be posted and expectd to serve for something like 3 years before he could be transferred again.

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All NWFP district Nazims resign in protest against ‘interference of the MMA govt’

One of the great achievments of the Musharraf government has been the creation of the new Local Government System which has devolved considerable power from the Provinces down to the Districts and further.
Yet whether it be the MMA government in NWFP or other provincial governments led by other parties, the major political parties and politicians have tried to undermine this whole system to grab back power for themselves.

All NWFP district Nazims resign

The local government system in the NWFP was threatened with collapse on Sunday after all the Nazims throughout the province tendered collective resignations in protest against the alleged interference of the MMA government. District Nazims of all the 24 districts of the province took the decision after two hours meeting held at the residence of Nazim Lakki Marwat, Humayun Saifullah in Peshawar, in which the Nazims tendered the resignations in protest against the negative attitude of the provincial government. “From day one, the MMA government has resorted to targeting the district government system. The provincial government took every step to sabotage the local government system and rendered the Nazims powerless,” Malik Asad, district Nazim Kohat on behalf of the rest told a press conference at Peshawar Press Club. He was flanked by Azam Afridi, district nazim of Peshawar, Pervez Khattak of Nowshera, Naseer Mohammad Khan of Charsadda, Sher Zaman Sher of Swabi, Mehboobur Rahman of Swat, Humayun Saifullah of Lakki Marwat, Sahibzada Tariqullah of Upper Dir, Raza Khan of Mardan, Mustafa Jadoon of Abbotabad, Malik Iqbal of Bannu, Shehzada Muhiyuddin of Chitral, Rashid Ahmad of Shangla and nazims of other districts. Nazims belonging to a component party of MMA are also among those who have tendered their resignations and would send it on Monday to President General Pervez Musharraf.

The Nazims have also constituted an action committee headed by Pervez Khattak and comprise of Azam Afridi, Mustafa Jadoon, Tariqullah and Mehboobur Rahman. “The MMA government wants to re-establish the English system in the country and empower the bureaucracy. In these circumstances it was not possible for us to work for the development of the country and society so we thought to better quit the system,” Malik Asad said. He said that the district Nazims could not remain silent over the encroachment of the provincial government. “The system has served the country and the nation has warmly welcomed it. Every one could observe change in the society after establishment of local government system in the country,” he maintained. Nazim Kohat said that since the local government system has been introduced the law and order situation in the country during the days of Muharram and Nauroz remained exemplary. Malik Asad said that the whole concentration of the provincial government was on transfer of government officials and recruiting their own people. “The officers were threatened of bad consequences if they didn’t obey directives about transfers and postings,” he alleged. “The government has violated the District Government Ordinance. The allegations framed against few of the district Nazims are baseless but one sided action is being taking against them,” Malik Asad said adding, “We are not against the process of accountability but could not allow any one to take one sided action against us”. He said that district Nazims wanted to serve the country and its people but in this situation they were unable to deliver. He said that during their meeting with chairman of National Reconstruction Bureau they were assured that no one could take back their powers from them.

The government was going to sack two of the district Nazims, Ubaidullah of Kohistan and Mohammad Iqbal of Bannu on misusing their powers and embezzlement in funds. Inquiry against for other Nazims, Pervez Khattak, Mustafa Jadoon, Sharif Khattak and Malik Asad has also been started. Bannu Nazim, Mohammad Iqbal while rejecting allegations levelled against him by the provincial government said, “The chief minister consider me and my family a threat for his political future and that why action has been taken against me”. He said that the Local Government Commission after 16 days of its formation visited the district and prepared a report while it went to Kohistan after 22 days of its formation. “It is impossible for a commission to study the Local Government Ordinance in this short time. I also deny all allegations framed against me by the government in connection with embezzlement and misuse of power,” he said. Representative of Nazim Kohistan, who was not present, said that the committee that came to inquire about the irregularities even didn’t meet the Nazim and other concerned officials but prepared a report inside a room and presented it to the government. Malik Asad while talking about allegations made against him said, “The government thinks that the district government plotted the incident of al-Qaeda people in Kohat that happened some months back.” Azam Afridi said that the government has also sent a letter to him alleging that he was responsible for killing Nazim Pishtakhara, Fayyaz Khalil. “I supported him during his elections. He was a good friend of mine but they termed me responsible for the death,” Azam said. He said that the people could observe changes in the provincial metropolis during the last two years.

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Local govt system to stay

http://www.dawn.com/2003/text/fea.htm#4

By Shamsul Islam Naz

Last week, a drawing room type workers convention was arranged by the local administration in collaboration with some over-confident leaders of the PML-Q which was addressed by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. It confined the latter for most of the time to the Circuit House, instead of enabling him to meet the workers outside.

Sensing the lapse, some local leaders of the ruling party having differences with district Nazim Zahid Nazir tried to make amends by taking the CM up to the residence of ex-MNA Mian Amjad Yaseen whose wife, Riffat Amjad, is MNA from special seats for women. However, this did not fulfil the purpose of mass contact of the chief minister.

Out of four National and eight Provincial Assembly seats of the city, the PML-Q had only one seat of MNA which too was won by exerting full pressure and resources of the Tehsil Municipal Administration (city) as the candidate’s younger brother was its Nazim. The wisdom of holding a workers’ convention in a city dominated by opponents of the District Nazim and that too in the Circuit House could not be understood.

Another notable feature was the sidelining of Nazim Zahid Nazir and domination of his rival lobby, within his own party, during the tour of the chief minister. Provincial excise and taxation minister Dr Shafiq Ahmad and ex-MNA Amjad Yaseen, both Arain, appeared to be fairly successful in opposing and concerning Zahid Nazir as was apparent from the fact that PPP dissident Raza Nasrullah Ghuman, who recently joined the PML-Q, was got nominated for the seat of Naib Nazim, as a ‘gift’, which had fallen vacant after the selection of Afzal Sahi as Punjab Assembly Speaker.

Raza Nasarullah, an industrialist-cum-agriculturist, belongs to a family having deep relations with Jat politicians. He contested the last general election for a National Assembly seat on a PPP Parliamentarians ticket, but lost. He has been fielded in local bodies politics by the PML-Q under a calculated move to pressurize the district Nazim, who is considered by his opponents to be involved in ruining the district government affairs.

Pervaiz Elahi appears to be looking for some trustworthy lieutenant to control the district and is quite hopeful of finding one. Therefore, his visit was also a part of this mission, during which the role of the Nazim appears to have been limited.

Presiding over a meeting of local heads of government departments and legislators at the Circuit House, the chief minister said a special grant would be provided by the government for the development and rehabilitation of the district, which would be spent through MPAs under the direct supervision and control of provincial ministers belonging to Faisalabad district.

He said in order to reduce unemployment, about 25,000 jobs would be provided by the government within a month. A similar number of vacancies would be filled during the second phase. In this regard, a transparent procedure and principle of merit would have to be adopted and the vacancies would continue to be filled through the Public Service Commission.

He said the government had launched different projects for the welfare of the people. A project of Rs18 billion for improvement and development of the education sector would soon be launched. Under the programme, Rs6 billion had been earmarked for the next financial year, while Rs12 billion more would be spent during the next two years. For the execution of these works, an independent implementation wing has been set up in the education department.

He said for distributing agricultural land among landless cultivators at the rate of 12.5 acres for each farmer, 100,000 acres had been reserved, and a scheme of five-marla residential plots would be launched for homeless persons in rural areas.

The chief minister said planning was being made to provide loans to growers on the pattern of car-leasing, while a bill would be presented in the provincial assembly for waiving off agricultural tax on holdings of 12.5 acres and less. He said besides the Punjab Bank, the Cooperatives Bank had also started releasing loans according to the new markup rate.

He said he had made endeavours to meet the requirements taking suo moto notice of the shortage of resources of the police department for bringing about the desired change for making the police an exemplary force.

The chief minister clarified that the local body system would continue and necessary steps were being taken to make it more solid and meaningful. He said neither should anybody have any doubt or misunderstanding about it, nor should anybody try to create a wrong impression about this system. There should be a complete coordination among members of parliament and representatives of local bodies for tackling the people’s problems and monitoring the progress of development works, he said.

Pervaiz Elahi said for a solution to the problems faced by the Tehsil Nazims, special attention would be paid to the proposals put forth by them in this regard by holding a meeting of all Nazims at the provincial level.

A delegation of the District Bar Association called on the chief minister and presented him a memorandum for setting up a bench of the Lahore High Court in Faisalabad.

The chief minister, speaking to PML-Q activists and leaders at a workers’ convention, said steps were being taken to promote education and increase literacy rate.

He said teachers would be given due respect in society at all costs and conspiracies to demoralize them would be foiled. Vacant posts of teachers would be filled soon through proper channel.

He said the PML-Q central leadership had decided to reorganize the party at union, tehsil and district levels for which a special campaign would be launched in near future.

He said all provincial ministers had been asked to hold open kutcheris and conduct meetings at the Muslim League House regularly for solving the problems faced by party activists and leaders. He claimed that the district and tehsil Nazims had been directed to give priority to the suggestions of PML-Q activists and office-holders.

He said a plan was being introduced for the rehabilitation of sick industrial units as well as elimination of impediments in the way of setting up new factories.

Earlier, the chief minister, presiding over a meeting of the local administrative officers, said development funds would be spent without any discrimination in all constituencies. The schemes of opposition members of assemblies would be given due consideration, he said.

The chief minister asked the government officers to perform their duties with dedication, otherwise they would have to face a disciplinary action. His announcement relating to the construction of Lyallpur Press Club project with a grant of Rs1 million was praised by the local intelligentsia. The chief minister entrusted the task of completion of the press club building to provincial minister for communication and works Zaheeruddin Khan.

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Sindh Nazims likely to resign
Unhappy over provincial govt interference

KARACHI (Online): Following NWFP, the district Nazims belonging to Sindh province are also considering resigning from their offices in protest against what they describe hurdles being created by the provincial government in the affairs of district governments, well-placed sources told Online on Tuesday.

A decision in this regard may take a few days to be taken and announced because some Nazims are currently out of the country while a few who have close association with the Chief Minister and the ministers of the provincial government are not ready to resign, sources said.

A majority of the district Nazims in Sindh belong to opposition parties, including the PPP and the Muttehuida Majlis-e-Amal (Jammat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema Pakistan).

This, the analysts say, would be a step to take advantage of the situation created against the MMA government in NWFP following the resignation of some 24 district Nazims on the same charges.

The district Nazims and the allied parties in Sindh government, especially the Muttehida Quami Movement have been at loggers head soon after the incumbent provincial government came into being some 6 months ago.

Various district Nazims, particularly, Nazim Karachi Naimatullah Khan, Nazim Hyderabad, Makhdoom Rafiq-uz-Zaman, Nazima Khairpur Nafisa Shah, Nazima Nawabshah, Faryal Talpur and others have time and again charged the provincial government in general, and the Local Bodies Minister Mohammed Hussein, who belongs to the MQM with their “undue interference” in the district government affairs.

Naimatullah Khan, backed by the Al-Khidmat group of JI, has been facing a tough time on the part of an arch rival MQM which had boycotted the district government elections paving the way for JI to clinch this key post. He has continuously been blaming some provincial ministers belonging to the MQM for interfering and creating hurdles in district government affairs.

The same is with Makhdoom Rafiq-uz-Zaman, belonging to Awam Dost panel of the PPP. He had resigned from his post a few months ago due to alleged non-cooperation of the provincial government and the District Coordination Officer (DCO) Hyderabad.

However, he withdrew the resignation after being assured by the government and the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) that his grievances would be resolved.

Nafisa Shah, the district Nazima of Khairpur, is facing a daunting opposition of Pir Sahib Pagara-led PML(F), which begged a national assembly and two provincial assembly seats from the district. Pir Pagara’s son, and the Sindh Minister for Irrigation Pir Sibghatullah Rashidi is reportedly engaged in tailoring no-confidence move against Nafisa Shah.

Faryal Talpur, who is the sister of Asif Ali Zardari has also been in hot waters facing opposition of her old rival and former minister Khan Mohammed Dahri. Dahri claims that the days of Nawabshah district government are numbered, as no-confidence move against Mrs Talpur would soon be tabled in the house.

Mrs Talpur often blames Dahri brothers who according to her have been using bureaucracy to fizzle out the steps taken by the district government, including development projects aimed at benefiting the citizens

" This is a high time for us to voice our legitimate demands following the resignation of NWFP Nazims as the situation is much worst in Sindh" " district Nazim told this scribe requesting not to be named.

" Now it is a matter to be seen as to whether the federal government takes any action against the PMLQ)-led government in Sindh in line with the NWFP government", he added.

However, the Nazim of Liaquatabad Town Pervez Mahmood said that despite all kind of pressures and interference in his town affairs by the Governor Sindh and the Local Bodies Minister, he would not resign, instead he would face the challenge.

" The Governor Sindh has continuously been surpassing his limits. The federal government which has taken the notice of alleged grievances of the district Nazims in NWFP, should play the same role in Sindh too because the situation is much more worst here ", he observed.

Farooq Naimatullah, the Nazim of Gulberg Town leveled the same charges against the Governor who according to him no authority to convene water and sewerage board meetings because it was the matter concerning to the district governments.

The District Nazim Sukkur Syed Nasir Hussein Shah, who had won this seat by the support of the PPP, has now shifted his loyalties to the Chief Minister Sardar Ali Mohammed Mahar, a close friend of his. Therefore, it seems that Nasir Shah would not create any trouble for his old benefactor.

http://www.khybermail.com.pk/d8.htm

19

The problem seems to be spreading. Either the provincial governments didn't buy the district government system or else, the dstribution of power is not equitable between the two. It seems a failure of Gen. Naqvi's NRB or whoever was responsible to make the whole thing work. Miscommunication, mistrust, feeling of injust and general disdain for the new rules seem to be the order of the day.

Sad.

Especially cz it took a lot of our precious resources to get the whole thing in place, and to see it all go to waste is such a shame. I remember, that when the whole district government system was unveiled, other than a few who were thumping beginning of a new era based on their ignorance and shallow views about the political culture in Pakistan, many people were extremely apprehensive about the success of having a viable and powerful district govt system working with a provincial setup which was supposed to come in place at a later time.

20

The MMA government is NWFP has agreed to talk directly to the federal government about resolving this dispute, and has agreed to work with the NRB to come to an agreement. It’s obvious that the MMA and others realise that they cannot turn back the clock and have to live with the new Local Government System.

Be it NWFP, Punjab or Sindh etc common theme seems to be politicians of all parties at provincial level pitted against their own partymen who hold power at the local level. Here the JI/MMA Nazim of Karachi is lauding the virtues of the Local Government System…

‘Present LG system better than all previous ones’

Nazim Karachi Naimatullah Khan has said the present local government system is better then all previous systems because authority has been vested at the grass roots level, making it the first time that public representatives have been allowed to perform government duties, which proved a great help in solving people’s problems. These views were expressed by him while addressing participants of NIPA’s advanced course, a press release said on Sunday. He asserted that according to the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO), all authorities form part of the city government, regretting that Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority, Karachi Building Control Authority, Water & Sanitation Department had not yet been merged with the city government, despite issuance of notifications in this regard. He opined that officers of these departments did not want a merger with the city government and they had the support of the bureaucracy who also wanted such ‘authorities’ to remain autonomous. Naimat claimed to have discussed the matter with the President and NRB and hoped that they would soon reach a conclusion in this regard. Nazim Karachi said that property tax was purely the right of towns, which was collected by the city government and deposited in the account of the provincial government, adding that though it had piled up to the tune of Rs1 billion but had not yet been given back to the city government. He said that district governments in the present system were more powerful. MPAs had no developmental works with them while elected Nazims carried out uplift works in their areas, which had thus created a rift between the two, he maintained. He maintained that he had already said before the elections that MNAs and MPAS should contact the Nazims for solving the problems confronting the masses, but they (MNAs & MPAs) contact the authorised officers directly, bypassing the set procedure, therefore, becoming a source of discontent and maligning the peaceful atmosphere.

The Nazim said that though he was a subordinate to the Chief Minister, he held that district governments were working under a law, questioning the interference of the CM in their affairs unnecessarily. “The city government of Karachi has carried out all developmental works in a transparent manner on merit and solved people’s issues, the precedence of which cannot be found in the whole of Pakistan,” he contended. He said that Karachi was larger than over 80 member countries of the UN and its problems were immense too. If the city government was allowed to levy Port User tax and Road User Tax then all the problems of Karachi would have been solved in two to three years. He refuted the claims of some that law and order situation in Karachi was not better and termed it as nothing more than negative propaganda. Nazim Karachi said that the tanker service was supplying water to only two per cent of slum areas where water pipelines were non-existent, adding that unless and until the water supply system was not improved and new sources not tapped, tankers could not be abolished altogether.