MULTAN, March 6: A vast majority of people want the government to give constitutional cover to the devolution plan, a survey conducted by Pattan development organization revealed on Thursday.
Covering a wide range of democratic process aspects after the October 10 elections, the organization carried out structured interviews of 4,917 voters and 137 group discussions in 50 national assembly constituencies and 200 union councils throughout the country.
Pattan chief Sarwar Bari, while presenting the outcome of the survey at a news briefing, said 69.6 per cent of the people demanded constitutional cover to the devolution plan. They have expressed confidence in the local bodies system.
Most of the people want the local governments to stay with the existing roles and responsibilities, hoping for an effective interface between all the tiers of the government.
As many as 66.8 per cent of the respondents agreed to the maintenance of the current power-sharing division between legislative assemblies and the local bodies, the survey revealed, adding that 60.4 per cent said legislators (MNAs/MPAs) should raise issues and problems of their areas at their respective forums, but they should not interfere in the local decision-making.
On the expectation from the Federal and provincial governments, as many as 52.8 per cent respondents expressed satisfaction over the formation while 26.6 per cent voted against it.
Among those dissatisfied with the government formation, around 26.9 per cent felt no change because they said the same old families had come to power again, 21 per cent were of the view that the coalition partners would be interested only in safeguarding their personal interests, 19.3 per cent said the parties would compromise on policies to keep the coalition intact and 14.8 believed that infighting among the coalition partners was expected. Nearly 3.3 per cent were skeptical that the ruling coalition would do any kind of legislation and 14.7 per cent had conviction that military would not allow parliament to function independently.
A majority of the respondents (48.2 per cent) wanted the government to ensure writ of law in the first year of its working while 15.2 per cent urged political parties to democratize their organizations. Besides, 8.1 per cent stressed that the ruling and opposition parties must develop code of conduct for smooth working of parliament, 14.4 per cent underlined the need for transparency of people’s involvement in decision-making and 14.1 per cent people demanded independent bodies to ensure transparent accountability.
Despite the ‘derailment’ of democratic process through military takeovers on the pretext of politicians’ failure to deliver, an overwhelming majority of 80 per cent respondents believed that political parties were the backbone of democracy and politics. However, they also underlined the importance of manifesto, party constitutions, regular elections for all office-bearers, constant contact with the masses and a transparent account and fund-raising system.
As many as 81.7 per cent respondents, however, said that no political party in the country possessed the essential characteristics.
Mr Bari claimed that a majority of the survey respondents wanted to enhance women representation on the legislative forums to 50 per cent. The survey was sponsored by the Department of International Development, United Kingdom.