FOR quite some time echoes for creation of more provinces have been resonating in the country with fluctuating intensity. The arguments in favour of the creation of more provinces usually have been poor governance, lack of development and distance factor from the provincial capitals. This debate which seemed to have been subsided with the passage of time has again been reignited and revived by the statement of the interior minister Mohsin Naqvi maintaining that the system of governance had collapsed and there was an imperative need for creation of more provinces and administrative units to improve governance. It is hard to ferret out the motive behind his statement at this juncture and why he said so while being part of the system and its beneficiary as well?
Nevertheless it is about time to ascertain whether the proposed recipe is the real solution to improving governance or not and what actually is needed to be done in this regard. After evaluating arguments against and in favour of creation of more provinces my impression is that most of the people are failing to understand the causes behind lack of good governance and how it can be improved. In my view the major cause of failure of the state to provide basic services to the people and connect with them is the hold of the elitist classes on political power and absence of participatory democracy. The root-cause of the hold of elitist classes on political power unfortunately is the way we elect our representatives for the federal and provincial legislatures. In this regard the single constituency system is the real culprit which intensifies culture of entitlement and corruption mostly benefitting the ruling classes and their cronies to the exclusion of the masses.
The begin with it is extremely difficult for any man belonging to poor and middle classes to contest elections due to the heavy expenses involved in electioneering and donations to the party fund for award of party ticket to contest the elections. It therefore remains only the privilege of the rich and elitist classes to contest the elections. This system also facilitates rigging and manipulation of election results. It promotes and entrenches the numbers game to clinch political power and in making and breaking the governments. It is also the root-cause of the perennial political instability in the country. The creation of more provinces under the prevailing system will also lead to capture of political power by the elite at the local level and further entrenching the culture of corruption and entitlement.
Therefore the first reform that we need is to break the hold of the elitist classes and feudal lords on the political power. This can be done by getting rid of the single constituency system. The best way in this regard is to switch over the system of proportional representation for electing our parliamentarians.
Under this system people vote for the parties rather than the individual candidates in a single constituency and the parties get representation in the parliament on the basis of the percentage of votes that they poll. The advantage of this system is that it reflects the real support for the political parties among the masses and also ensures the presence of smaller and regional parties in the parliament making the legislature a truly representative body. The party leaders are spared of the black mail of the electables and they can nominate really competent and educated people from different walks of national life to represent the party in the parliament. The system also eliminates the possibility of horse trading and floor-crossing for personal gains. It also eliminates chances of organized rigging. To make this system really workable voting will also have to be made compulsory so that every registered voter can exercise his right of franchise.
The second and the most debilitating factor for lack of good governance has been the absence of local governments in the country in violation of the constitution.The constitution of Pakistan envisages a three layered system of governance in the country comprising federal, provincial and local government. But it is painful to note that while the federal and provincial governments have been functioning un-interrupted both under civilian and military rules, it were only the latter who installed systems of local governments during their rules, though not as envisaged in the constitution but with the sole purpose of building support for their regimes at the grass-root level and to undermine the political parties. The elected governments that interspersed the military regimes remained criminally oblivious to this constitutional requirement. The consequences of this willful breach of the constitution by the so-called elected governments are that the state of Pakistan, has to a great extent, failed to provide the required services to its citizens and building a responsible relationship with them.
Article 140A (1&2) stipulates” Each Province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments. Elections to the local governments shall be held by the Election commission of Pakistan.”
As is evident from this article the local government system envisaged by the constitution reiterates devolution of full powers to the local governments including development projects and the local administration, free from the strangulating control of the provincial governments. This article actually envisages the ascendency of the local representatives over the administration and police in their respective areas besides carrying out development and provision of the civic amenities to the people. These local bodies can prove to be best administrative units. The establishment of the local bodies in conformity with this article of the constitution would also help in elimination of ‘ Thana Culture’ from the country since police working under the local government heads will be less prone to corruption and oppression against the masses.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
