PESHAWAR: Sitting cross-legged on the floor under the central arch of historic Mahabat Khan Mosque after Zoher prayer, Peshawar’s deputy commissioner was listening to the grievances of the city’s dwellers on Thursday.

It was an open kutcheri – open to all and sundry – to vent their spleen.

Majority of the worshipers left the mosque after prayer. Around 200 people stayed to present their problems to DC Islam Zaib, who was accompanied by city district nazim Mohammad Asim.

People sent back to bureaucracy for resolution of civic issues

A brigade of officials of the district administration and attached bodies was standing in a half circle behind the DC and taking notes. People were narrating their problems and the concerned officials had to give clarification or assurances to avoid embarrassment.

First of all, khateeb Maulana Taib Qureshi piled up issues of Mahabat Khan Mosque that included maintenance, provision of UPS system, generator, parking, removal of security barriers placed by the police on roads leading to the mosque, drainage and security. Then the other people were given opportunity to highlight their issues one by one.

Most of the issues highlighted in the open kutcheri like sanitation, waste collection, drinking water, unnecessary road studs and absence of streetlights related to the district government and its attached organisations.

A complainant asked to renovate Wazir Bagh and separate jogging track for women. Another complained about road studs fixed by different departments without any need. An activist of the ‘moral brigade’ demanded action against CD shops in Nishtarabad, saying they spread immorality in the society.

Like other complainants, Baba Jee Gor Pal Singh highlighted multiple issues of Sikh community in Peshawar. One of the issues facing Sikhs, according to Baba Jee, was frequent theft of motorbikes from the city’s Mohallah Jogan Shah, an old settlement of the community.

“We have registered 270 FIRs regarding motorbike theft from the street during the last two and a half years, but did not get relief from the police,” he complained.

He said that more than 8,000, of total 18,000 Sikh populations in the city had migrated to other areas of the country due to insecurity. Unlike other complainants, Baba Jee was invited to come to the DC office.

The revival of the open kutcheri, a creation of Field Martial Gen Ayub Khan in 1960s, which was also followed by Gen Ziaul Haq, was recently revived by chief secretary Mohammad Azam Khan.

The chief secretary directed deputy commissioners of all districts in October last to hold open kutcheri to interact with the public without formalities. The standard operating procedures (SOPs) were issued to all commissioners and DCs.

One cannot doubt the intention of the chief secretary for directing the administrative officers to organize open forums to facilitate citizens but it raised serious questions about the viability and utility of the much publicized local government system in the province. The LG system was launched in 2015 to resolve issues like waste collection, drinking water etc at the village and neighbourhood levels.

The local government system placed in KP is totally different from other three provinces. KP has three tiers of local government system comprising district, tehsil/town, village and neighbourhood councils. More or less 42,000 local government representatives were elected in local body elections held in 2015.

Despite putting up such a huge system at the taxpayers’ money, the situation seems going back to square one.

The revival of the open kutcheri shows that PTI’s ‘New Pakhtunkhwa’ is going back to the Gen Ayub era.

It shows ‘no confidence’ in the existing local government system. The people are forced to knock back at the door of bureaucracy for issues like repairing tube wells, removal of waste or construction and opening of sewerage lines.

Peshawar with over five million population is one of the oldest living cities in the world. The city has been declared the world’s third polluted city by World Health Organisation. So the chief secretary does not need to hold open kutcheri or other forum to seek public input about issues like disposal of waste, drinking water and dilapidated condition of the roads.

The open kutcheri created confusions about who is enjoying real powers, the city district nazim or the DC. Under the existing system, the district nazim enjoys executive powers, while the DC has the power of principal accounting officers.

On the other hand, the police have become a separate entity as they’ve neither been answerable to the DC, district nazim or home department after getting complete autonomy under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Act, 2017.

The DC was helpless when Baba Jee and other people raised issue of security in the open kutcheri. No one from the police department was present in the forum to respond.

The chief secretary may issue separate notification to the police boss to hold open kutcheri in all districts to address grievances of the people.

Like police, the Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar is also functioning as an autonomous body. The district nazim can not intervene in the domain of the WSSP. That may require a separate open kutcheri for collection and safe disposal of waste and supply of clean drinking water.

The open kutcheri was wrapped up in 50 minutes with Dua by Mahabat Khan Mosque khateeb Maulana Mohammad Taib. He prayed for peace in Pakistan and especially Dua for DC that God bless him in this world and the world hereafter.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2017