February 25, 2008	Monday	Safar 17, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 24: Though the victorious Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) have not indicated as to how they will handle pro-PML-Q nazims of local governments, officials in Punjab believe the latter will not confront the government because of their failure to influence the general elections as was being alleged by the opposition.

Senior officials said that contrary to opposition’s apprehension that nazims could influence the elections, they failed to ensure the victory of any PML-Q candidate.

They said as the nazims had failed to serve the party under whose umbrella they worked, now they would not be able to counter a different setup in federal and provincial governments. A majority of them would play the survival game by either changing loyalty or acting as neutral players, they said.

Under the Local Government Ordinance, provincial governments cannot curtail the tenure of existing local bodies and ask for fresh elections. Therefore, they would have to either tolerate nazims or control them through different channels, officials said.

It will be difficult for new governments to abolish local governments as its main protectors are donor agencies that have invested billions in them.

Officials said many key players in the previous setup did not like so much power for local councils but they had no choice but to accept them because of the donor agencies.

Amending the Local Government Ordinance was also not easy for the provincial governments as this could not be done without the approval of the president till 2009, the officials claimed.

About the performance of nazims in the general elections, they said the local governments, especially in Punjab, were headed by powerful and wealthy people who allegedly used all their might to support PML-Q candidates.

But none of the powerful nazims in Gujrat, Bahawalpur, Attock, Rahim Yar Khan and Lahore could ensure the victory of their party men in general elections. The opposition accused nazims of using official machinery to influence the elections but the results proved them a failure.

Now, it will be even harder for pro-PML-Q nazims to work for their party against the will of new provincial governments. They are independent institutions but the nazims are required to follow the line of the provincial and the federal governments.

Officials said local governments could be controlled through bureaucrats or shifting their vital responsibilities to provincial governments or district officers.

Recently, the Punjab government authorised district coordination officers (DCOs) to detain anyone under the Maintenance of Public Order despite the fact that law and order was the responsibility of nazims.

In the previous setup, a majority of police officers did not care for nazims belonging to the PML-Q. Now, it will be easy for the new government to use the officers to control nazims.

The final elections security plan was also made at the provincial level and implemented through DCOs and district police officers and there was no mention of the district nazims because of their partisan role.

The previous PML-Q government withdrew the power to control colleges in districts from the district governments. This showed how the provinces could easily rob the district governments of its powers.

The most important thing is the next government will make a massive administrative reshuffle in provinces and districts to put in a network of officers who can implement its policies.

The government can control district governments through the Local Government Authority which is headed by the local government minister. The previous local government might be lenient towards party nazims but the new one could force them to follow the government policy, officials said.

The officials said the question as to how the provincial and the district governments of opponent parties could go along had arisen because of the violation of the Local Government Ordinance, which allowed only non-party elections. The non-party local council elections meant neutral local governments and no confrontation between them and the provincial governments.

Finally, they said, the country was required to synchronise the timing of the general and local elections to allow harmony between the two bodies. This would also eliminate the possibility of one influencing the elections of another.