On one pretext or another, the governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh have been able to postpone the local government elections. By their legal wrangling and unabashed stubbornness, these governments have manipulated the situation and temporarily pushed the election date forward, possibly, by a year or so.
Ultimately, elections for the grass roots elected bodies will be held as pressures from courts and ordinary people mount for the same.
There are reasons; nevertheless, that the parties in provincial governments will fight tooth and nail in the losing cause: If the elected local governments come into being, a huge portion of the development funds will go from the provincial governments to the elected grass root bodies. With the funds, much of the authority to utilize government money will also shift to the officials elected at village and union council levels and so will the influence with local police, and patwaris, which only the members of National and provincial assemblies, who are mostly from rich families, currently have.
The local governments are said to be nurseries of democracy. These provide entry-level elected positions to inde
pendent minded low-income individuals and lowly workers of political parties. These men and women by dint of their ability, hard work and political acumen can rise in importance and popularity to rival the top and very rich central leaderships of various political parties. It is not just a theory; local government systems in many modern democracies have produced persons who ended up as leaders of their parties and, prime ministers and presidents of countries. Even our not-very-democratically-structured local governments of the past have given us a few central leaders who are in politics today.
The people in power in the centre and provinces are the rich elite of this country. For them the form of government is of no consequence, it however, is vital that they are part of it. Local government, it seems, is one form of government of which they cannot or would not be part of and as such they are against its very existence.
In a democratic setup, the expenses of running for either provincial assembly or the National Assembly are beyond the means of the poor labourers, farm workers, small business owners and successful professionals like doctors and engineers. In this way, the rich compete among themselves without having to face the rivalry of the classes which form the backbone of a society and who if they come into power will make policies which will facilitate spending government funds for the downtrodden in the country.
The local bodies system which establishes an elected government at the very grass root level and transfers funds and authority down to village level council has different dynamics and make it impossible for our ruling elite to exploit the lower income groups and landless peasants because a) elections are held and councils are formed at so low a level that it is below the social status of the icons of elite families to run in these polls or sit in the resulting councils b); the seats in local bodies are so numerous that even if they want to, the rich families don't have enough sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and in-laws to run for every seat; as such, unlike the National and provincial assemblies, the local councils cannot become exclusive clubs of the elite c); unlike the national and provincial assemblies, the local government system makes it possible for factory workers and even domestic servants to be elected to local councils and the rich landlords, industrialists and business tycoons cannot bear to sit in the same councils side by side of their employees.
When all the above factors are put together, it comes to light that local government system not only will take away the means of corruption from the elite class that keeps them rich; it also nurtures the kind of leadership which finally will pose a threat to the current ruling class.
In spite of the fact that the problems of the common man can only be solved by an elected government system and if allowed to run its course, will bring a peaceful revolution in the country, our elite class is not just unprepared but is opposed to it.
In spite of its revolutionary impact, the local government system is basically an evolutionary process which stealthily seeps into a society and cannot be stopped. As such, regardless of the shameful opposition of the ruling parties, Pakistan will have an elected local government system and very soon.
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