KARACHI: Flaws hinder working of new local govt system
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, July 3: The devolution plan launched amid much fanfare to provide services to people at the doorstep, in its 10- month record, if any indicator, has failed to deliver the goods.
People, who had pinned hopes and expectations on the new local government system to get basic problems solved, have been left disillusioned by the performance of these new institutions. Those being made to pay all sorts of charges, surcharges and taxes — justified or unjustified — continue to suffer on account of water, sanitation, education, health, recreation and environment.
During the period, the City Government, which had a total outlay of Rs12,332.08 million, including Rs2,356.81 million revised expenditures for development, has failed to complete any one project or carry out the repair or renovation of dilapidated roads. The one-km long stretch of Nishtar Road — from Teen Hatti to Lasbela — continues to haunt the City Government which it inherited from its predecessor authority, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
A commuter failed to assess how, where and under what priority the development budget had been utilized. If Nishtar Road, one of the main arteries of the city, failed to get the attention of the city fathers, one could be justified in slamming the failure of the government to pay attention to the repair of roads for making them motorable.
Abul Hasan Ispahani Road, which serves as a link road for those going to the airport or vice versa and coming to the city from Super Highway, face a totally unmotorable stretch opposite Paradise Homes. Meanwhile, construction work at sites allotted for flats even in the riverbed continue to add to the hordes of flats on both sides of Ispahani Road. Once fully occupied, the road would become too crowded to even allow pedestrians to cross it.
On the contrary, the City Government appears only too eager to initiate charged parking on all of Karachi’s roads and to increase its rate without providing any service whatsoever or taking responsibility for the security of the vehicles parked there.
Likewise, in hospitals, the charges of slip system go on increasing without any improvement in service to suffering humanity. The callous attitude of the doctors with patients and prescription of patent medicines waste the very purpose of visiting the hospitals. No thought is given to the people who travel long distances to reach these hospitals after facing innumerable and overwhelming hardships such as overcrowded public transport or hiring taxis/rickshaws with tampered meters.
In the education sector, during the period under review, no visible change has been witnessed in the attitude of teachers, teaching methods, attitude towards pupils and the school environment, despite tall claims by education officials who appear more interested in seeking favour of the higher-ups than paying attention to their jobs.
In the field of sanitation, too, conditions are no different than those found in other departments. In the beginning, sweepers could be found sweeping the roads off and on. But with the passage of time, the sanitary staff have also adjusted themselves to the changing circumstances and disappeared altogether. As for the tree plantation drive on traffic islands and footpaths, the costly, imported palm trees and other saplings planted have failed to take root for want of proper care after plantation.
But these are not only the feelings expressed by the common man alone but also by its key players. Elected councillors can be found grumbling over the situation. They complain that neither do they have funds nor the powers to move the administrative machinery.
The head of the three-tier structure of the local government — the district city, town and union or tehsil government — Nazim and Naib Nazim, also find themselves banging the cash- strapped system where even those powers have not yet been fully transferred to them as envisaged in the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.
The City Government, which is the top layer of the system attributes its failure to deliver to the people for want of fiscal powers, non-transfer of Karachi Kutchi Abadis Authority, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Karachi Building Control Authority which, as per the SLGO 2001, ought to have been merged with the City Government by June 30.
The National Reconstruction Bureau, godfather to the new system, ought to come to its rescue before the year comes to an end, and sort out the invisible forces responsible for creating obstacles in the way of implanting the system on ground. There is a need to find out why measures are being taken halfheartedly even in the setting up of a public safety commission, district ombudsman office and observers committee to deal with corruption. These institutions are yet to be notified, while advisory committees and the local government commission were recently formed and have yet to start functioning.
There is also a need to look into the motives and implications which, instead of enhancing financial powers of the elected representatives, stands withdrawn from July 1, 2002. Insiders are reportedly of the view that the old game of whispering against the misuse of financial powers by elected representatives, in favour of the party they belonged to, while denying development in the constituency of their opponent had been played. This resulted in issuance of an amendment in the SLGO 2001 to take away the remaining powers.
The helplessness of the Nazim in discharging his duties could well be evaluated from the remarks of the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, about his administrative and financial powers which he passed while presenting the new budget for the year 2002-2003.
In the speech, he pointed out that all the political, administrative and fiscal powers had not been transferred fully to the lowest tier of the city district government by the provincial government in accordance to the SLGO 2001.
Besides, he said, the recent amendments to the SLGO has further aggravated the situation by taking away the remaining financial powers of the City Government, making it completely helpless in matters of financial decisions. The fiscal control would put the City Government at the mercy of the Auditor General of Sindh.
This amendment is contrary to the very perception of President Gen Pervez Musharraf who is on record saying that financial devolution is the key to running the system effectively.
In the new system, who calls the shots is yet to be determined as the all-powerful bureaucracy, particularly the DMG group which, from the initial stage of floating the system till its implement, had expressed reservations about the success of the system. It had succumbed to the pressure of the military rulers and accepted to be subservient to the elected Nazim in the capacity of district coordination officer, executive district officers and municipal officers.
In the past, this group used to control the local government system, but under the new system, they are responsible to the Nazim. However, in order to exercise executive authority, the Nazim had to rely on the DCO, who being an experienced bureaucrat, knows how to operate in the given system.
The public, councillors and Nazim, all disillusioned of the new local government system, indicated that the devolution plan has failed even before implementation.
Political parties, having routes in smaller provinces which continue to slam the government for not getting their due share from the national pool, are on record expressing their reservations about the devolution plan. They termed the new system an attempt to reimpose a one-unit plan, making the provinces non-entity by encroachment on their political domain and financial authority.
