Asia Times: Opposition builds up against devolution plans


	April 13, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Opposition builds up against devolution plans
By Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's military government is working overtime to devolve powers to the grassroots level but faces growing resistance from political parties and rights groups demanding a timeframe for general elections.

Many regard the devolution plans as a move by military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf to deflect growing international pressure for a return to democracy and gain extra time for military rule.

Such apprehensions are not allayed by the timing of Musharraf's announcement unveiling his ''roadmap to democracy'' just two days before US President Bill Clinton's visit to Pakistan last month. Musharraf has denied that Clinton's visit has anything to do with his plan which envisages local elections beginning in December and leading to the formation of district-level governments by August 14, 2001.

''The role of local bodies institutions is being strengthened by giving them adequate powers to generate resources on their own and to spend it in accordance with local developmental requirements,'' said Omar Asghar Khan, federal minister for local government and rural development.

However, even the most ardent advocates of decentralization seem thrilled at the plan which the government generously said is open to suggestions for improvement and fine-tuning.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) rejected the plan, saying the military rulers have no mandate to take such steps. ''The official local election scheme is incomplete, self-contradictory and divisive and the rulers should announce steps for return of democratic rule,'' an HRCP resolution said.

The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of Nawaz Sharif and the Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan People's Party (PPP) have both rejected the military government's overtures and have demanded immediate restoration of democracy. Although both major parties reacted tamely to Musharraf's coup which arrested the democratic process, their demands for restoration of democracy have become louder after Clinton's visit.

Among critics of Musharraf's plan are hard-line nationalist leaders from the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, who fear that it interferes with provincial autonomy guaranteed in the country's 1973 constitution, currently under suspension. The nationalist parties have demanded more autonomy for the provinces along with greater financial and administrative control but successive government have preferred to keep the provinces under tight rein.

''Local level governance is the subject that should be dealt with by the provincial governments. But the federal government never allowed provinces the autonomy promised to them in the country's constitution,'' said Jalal Mehmood Shah, chairman of the Sindh Thinkers Forum at a recent seminar in Karachi. The Forum found no difference between the basic democracy system introduced by another military dictator Ayub Khan in the early sixties and Musharraf's grassroots level democracy scheme. ''The purpose remains the same - direct control of the Center up to the street and village level, thus negating the very principle of provincial autonomy,'' said Shah.

The Awami National Party (ANP), which represents the Pushto-speaking population in the North West Frontier Province, also rejects the government's recipe to devolve powers and call it a repetition of the failed experience of the past. ''The question of holding local elections comes under the domain of the provinces. The fact that the federal government is taking the decision to hold local elections is indicative of further centralization of powers in the hands of the federal government,'' said ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan.

Wali feared the plan would turn provincial governments into mere post offices. ''More important is the question of provincial autonomy. The center should decide what powers it wants to exercise and what it wants to pass on to the provinces - which can (in turn) decide about the districts,'' he said.

The government maintains that the devolution plan will not weaken the provinces. ''All provinces are geo-political pillars of the federation of Pakistan, and district governments are by no means alternative to the provincial governments,'' said government spokesman Javed Jabbar.

Another nationalist leader Yousuf Laghari, who heads the Sindh Democratic Party, however, seems to think otherwise. He believed that provinces are not geo-political units but represent separate people with distinct cultures and different languages. ''The rulers should accept the principle that Pakistan is a multi-nation country consisting of Sindhi, Seraiki, Punjabi, Pashtoon and Baloch people,'' Laghari said. He reiterated the demand of these people that their languages be given the status of national languages and they get proper representation in the armed forces and the judiciary.

The government plans to hold direct party-less elections at union (village) and district levels. Elected institutions at the two levels have special reserved seats for women, farmers and vulnerable groups.

The plan has not even gone down well with the official advisory group on local bodies and rural development, which has recommended that political parties be allowed to take part in local elections. ''Like Ziaul Haq (who put in place the local government system through an ordinance in 1979), this government is also trying to create a new lot of politicians through local elections, but this time the new breed will be moderate and more acceptable to the world,'' said a member of the advisory group.

The religo-political parties, on the other hand, oppose the devolution plan, saying it is contradictory to the country's cultural values - especially with regard to the mandatory representation for women in district governments.

These fundamentalist parties believe that the military government is patronizing the non-governmental organizations that generally promote western models of development. ''We will not let the government prop up NGOs in any future setup,'' said Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the right-wing Jamaat-i-Islami.

The organization suggested that the government abandon its ''seriously flawed devolution plan,'' and work with political parties for a return to democratic rule.

(Inter Press Service)

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