THE PML-N leadership is known for concentrating powers in the hands of the top political office and governing through a coterie of favourite bureaucrats. The disdain of the PML-N’s inner circle for elected representatives, even belonging to their own party, is no secret. Combine this with the party leadership’s fear of the rival PTI’s popularity and we can see why the new Punjab local government law was passed. That the new law hands all financial and administrative powers to deputy commissioners, practically stripping elected offices of their core responsibilities, means that the chief minister’s office will actually be controlling the local governments. Legal experts argue that the bill undermines Article 140A of the Constitution which mandates devolution of power to elected local governments. Others believe that the new legislation is aimed at preventing the rise of powerful local leadership from rival political parties. In either case, the law signifies democratic backsliding in Pakistan’s most populous province.

This backsliding has not gone unnoticed even by PML-N lawmakers, many of whom criticised the bill when it was time to vote on it in the provincial assembly on Wednesday. Even the Speaker expressed reservations although he and other critics of the bill could not stop its passage. Some treasury members rightly observed that it would “bury local governments in Punjab”, and insisted it would dismantle local governance. The law negates the core principle of any democratic system — devolution — as most devolved services, including graveyards, would continue to be controlled by the provincial authorities through vehicles created for this purpose. Not that the other provinces have ideal local government laws, but Punjab has hit a new low in the transfer of powers to elected local officials. As long as the politicians fail to give more details in the Constitution regarding the devolution of powers to the grassroots level, Pakistan will remain without an effective third tier of government.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2025