Order and Anarchy

President and General Musharraf introduced the present Local Government Plan on 14th August 2000. It was an Independence Day “gift” of “democracy” from the General to the people of Pakistan. The objective of this plan was purported to be the empowerment of people and the establishment of genuinely working democratic institutions.

However, from the looks of things, it seems that Musharraf has just followed in the footsteps of his predecessors namely, General Zia and Field Marshall Ayub Khan. Like them, Musharraf quickly jumped on the idea of devolution of power to the grassroots level. Well, it is understandable, that all of them including Musharraf needed some means to legitimizing their hold of the government and their seizure of power of the State. All of these dictators have used the system of Local Governments to achieve results like depoliticizing the tiers of the government.

Musharraf’s plan envisaged extensive decentralization of political and administrative authority. This is probably the one point that can be singled out which differentiates General Musharraf’s plan from those of his predecessors’.

Apparently, Musharraf’s plan seems to have some very noble objectives, but reality is different. The Musharraf regime has spared nothing in using this system for its’ own advantage. For example, everyone in Pakistan knows how district nazims used public resources to stage pro – Musharraf rallies during the presidential referendum campaign in April 2002 and during the General Election campaign.

Although the plan aims to establish and strengthen democracy, it has infact served as a tool to legitimizing and strengthen the dictatorial regime. In a world where military dictators are frowned upon, the Musharraf regime desperately needed some sort of mechanism, which could give the regime its needed support. So, the military came up with a power devolution plan, which would create nominal local governments at the district level. The local governments were to create the military’s democratic image and were to create an image that the military was serious in restoring civilian rule.

One of the most important aspect of the Local Government Plan is that the system that it seeks to implement is of a party – less nature. Historically, the military has always remained allergic to party politics. It has always tried to undermine party politics. This approach helps the military greatly in its approach of divide and rule. Also, such a non – party political setup promotes politics of favoritism on the basis of caste, region, etc.

Additionally, the Local Government Plan beautifully bypasses the provincial tiers of governance. This leads to the weakening of the federation. For instance, in order to provide security to the plan from the whims of any elected government that may try to amend it (atleast in the foreseeable future), General Musharraf has placed the Local Government Ordinance in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Article 268(2) of the Constitution says that the laws specified in the Sixth Schedule may not be altered, repealed or amended without the prior permission of the President. This fact also implies that although making local governments a provincial subject, the provinces don’t have real control.

The current state of things has unleashed a large-scale political engineering that seeks to undermine the political parties in the country as well as to enhance divisions between the different layers of the government. Instead of promoting democracy, the present system has only enhanced the scope and projection of military control.