The Enigma Of Local Government System In Pakistan: A Critical Analysis Of Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2021(PLGO-2021)

Abstract

Local government got recognition as the most significant government tier of service deliverance, fiscal development, and democratic control. Local governments bring government to the doorsteps of the citizens and facilitate local preferences into policy. Local governments are the backbone of a federation where the basic necessities of the local commune meet by the local authorities. It also minimizes the responsibilities of the federal government and its federating units. Pakistan has experienced a troubled local government system since its foundation. After the 18th Amendment in 2010 in the 1973 constitution under the article 140-A, now the provinces are responsible for political, administrative and fiscal affairs of the local governments. Punjab has experienced the PLGA-2013with different flaws. Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf government took an initiative and implemented a new local system in Punjab under PLGO 2021after the final approval of Governor Muhammad Sarwar on December 13, 2021. The new local government system is considering an improved local system that would empower citizens in the actual sense and comprehension of premier Imran Khan’s pledge to delegate power to the local level. The new ordinance has suggested manifold changes. It’s time now also to free up resources from the provinces; to announce election schedules; and to phase out the bureaucracy’s fossilized Brahmins from the municipal level. The study has made a critical analysis of the newly implemented PTI government ordinance introduced in Punjab and investigated how it will carry out the local commune basic necessities after effusive implementation. It is found out that the new system has not yet announced the timetable for the Punjab local government elections. Local governments require turning into endogenous to brace the democracy. The public elimination by the authoritarians and the current government’s prompt deferral of the local governments in four provinces, protecting in the name of amendments exacerbate and make worse to the already tormented democracy.