The issue of devolution of powers to the level of local governments has become an intellectual, political, and economic fad in Pakistan.
When something becomes a fad, it means it is accepted without giving it any thought or putting forward any arguments. It acquires the status of something taken for granted. And it is presented as an established truth that no one is supposed to disagree with, and if a poor soul happens to do so, he is treated as a stranger to the cohort.
I have experienced and observed both sides of this coin, that is, the way the faddists treat it and the way the faddists treat the ones who try to differ with the fad.
To begin with, here are my arguments against the fad.
- The local government is neither the issue nor the solution. Under the circumstances, if devolution is pursued, it would push the Rot to the lowest rung of society.
The devolution of powers that went under the General Musharraf regime gives credence to my view.
i) The political rivalries devolved to the grassroots level.
ii) The power seekers grew like mushrooms after a rain.
iii) The ills related to political power, such as influencing this or that task or process, became routine.
iv) In addition to the federal and provincial taxes, local taxes made their inroads.
v) Corruption too devolved, and thus the financial burden increased on the local population without having any benefit from the devolution.
- In a society where there is no law and order, no semblance of a rule of law, no prompt dispensation of justice, no protection secured to the ordinary citizens, no way of redressing their grievances, no door open to them against the inhuman and degrading treatment by the state machinery, and where the ordinary people are at the mercy of a brutal police and other law-enforcing agencies, the devolution of powers to the local level will make the already hapless lives of the ordinary citizens extremely miserable.
- Let me recommend a movie to watch: Rambo: The First Blood. This demonstrates how local power goes berserk in a developed society. This is not too far-fetched a fear. No doubt, a developed society may have the lowest chances of such deviant behavior as that of a mayor in the movie, but in a society like Pakistan, the opportunities for such mayors are abundant.
- Also, I think, as Mao Zedong’s famous saying goes, ‘We should support whatever the enemy opposes and oppose whatever the enemy supports.’ Likewise, some political parties and groups in Pakistan that believe in total violence in their politics, since they eagerly support the cause of the devolution because that suits their violent political expeditions, that’s why what they support must be opposed with equal force.
As there are a number of such groups and their various factions that desperately seek the devolution of power to the local level, that makes the whole issue of devolution highly suspect. That amounts to saying that their support for it cogently proves that presently there must be something inherently wrong with the devolution of powers in Pakistan.
- And how to deny these facts: is Pakistan not a society that stands torn apart by political, sectarian, ethnic, linguistic, and other rivalries? Is Pakistan not a country where there is no ownership of the state of Pakistan? That is, no political party owns it; no constitutional institution owns it; and neither the parliament nor the provincial assemblies own it.
Under the circumstances, what purpose may the act of instituting local governments serve?
No doubt, that would add another tier to the already existing innumerable tiers of a state that is there to control the citizens’ income and their lives. For instance, at the lowest level, from a clerk to a policeman, they are all there to coerce, dehumanize, and extort money from the people!
As to all of them, who happen to be fortunate that by virtue of their being albeit a tiny part of the state machinery, whatever power they are invested with, it is a gold mine for them to extract as much gold as possible, and that’s what all the fighting, including the politics in Pakistan, is all about.
- It is too unfortunate that Pakistan is likened to a’sinking ship’, and more unfortunate than this sad fact is that all those influential and wealthy who have been and are running the state and government of Pakistan have already abandoned this ship as they all have obtained nationality of another, this or that country. So, all those people who can arrange whatever amount of money from whatever sources are on their heels to leave the country. Many have already left in droves.
That implies an obvious state of dead governance in Pakistan. So, what do the protagonists of the devolution of power to the local level want? Devolution of dead governance to the local level?
- For now, the last of my arguments is that more important than devolution is the curtailing of the political powers of politicians, and that would make the vocation of a politician less lucrative, thus turning away the predatory power-seekers from it.