Download Analysis of Political Reforms, Admin Structure & Financial Arrangements in Local Govt and more Exercises Introduction to Public Administration in PDF only on Docsity!
LESSON 42
POLITICAL REFORMS
In this lecture we will examine the Political reforms, Administrative structure and Financial arrangements (PFC) in greater detail.
Political Reforms Elctoral Arrangements : The foundation of the electoral structure for the three tiers of local government is the union council. The union is a multimember ward for the election of members of the union council that is, each constituency is on average 25,000, and each union council is composed of 21 directly elected members. The nazim and naib nazim (mayor and deputy mayor) are elected on a joint ticket. The remaining 19 seats are, as discussed in last lecture, as following:
- 12 Muslim seats, 4 of which are reserved for women;
- 6 seats for peasants and workers of which 2 are reserved for women;
- 1 seat for minority communities;
Indirect Elections The nazim of the union council then becomes member of district council and naib nazim of union council becomes members of tehsil council.
The union councilors constitute the Electoral College for the district or tehsil councilors and for the district and tehsil nazim and naib nazim. 1/3 of seats are reserved for women (directly elected at union council level and elected by Electoral College of Union Councilors at tehsil and district level).
Figure 1
Union Nazims (Ex Officio)
Zila Council
Union Naib Nazims (Ex Officio)
Indirectly Elected
Tehsil Nazim
Naib Nazim
Tehsil Council
Union Nazim
Naib Nazim
Naib Nazim
General Seats (12)
Peasants (6)
Min (1)
Indirect Elections
In addition 5 percent of district and tehsil seats have been reserved for peasants (in rural constituencies) or workers (in urban areas), and 5 percent for minorities. Thus overall districts council and tehsil council are made up of about 2/3 directly elected members and 1/3 indirectly elected including nazim and naib nazim. The size of district and tehsil councils varies according to the number of union councils within district. Each tier of local government has a term of office of 4 years, with 2 term limit for nazimeen and naib nazimeen. The indirect elections system is illustrated in Figure 1.
District There is a departure from convention and in the Devolution Plan, at district level representation of marginalized groups is intentionally designed in the election. Thus, there are 33 % seats for women in the District Council. Similarly 5% seats are for workers and 5% for minorities.
In order to have better quality of elected representative a condition of matriculation/secondary school has been kept.
Tehsil Likewise for better representation of marginalized groups following seats are kept at Tehsil level:
- 33% women seats
- 5% for workers/peasants
- 5% for minorities
- Qualification of at least matriculation / Secondary certificate or Equivalent.
Each tier of local government has a term of office of four years, with a two-term limit for nazimeen and naib nazimeen at all levels of government.
Functions of Union Council We have discussed the functions of district council. And we have also discussed the function of Tehsil council. Union Councils as we know are the lowest local unit in rural areas (the lowest unit in urban area is town committee. A Union Council as we know has a population of 25,000 performs following functions:
- Municipal function is the function of sewerage and sanitation i.e. cleanliness of area.
- Finance: Performs financial function of managing expenditures and rousing revenues.
- Pubic safety: Managing bridges, culvert etc.
- Health: Provision of basic preventive health care, like controlling epidemics etc.
- Education: Provision of basic primary education.
- Literacy: Literacy programmes for adults who were unable to receive primary education.
- Justice: Provision of justice in civil cases through “masalihat Councils” In addition Union Council also performs following functions:
a. Undertake development projects in connection with above mentioned functions. b. Impose taxes, to fund annual development plan. The proposed revenue raising authority of Union Council is: fee for licensing of professions and vocations, fee on sale of animals in cattle market, market fee, fee for certification of births, marriages and deaths etc. c. Local securities system-union guards d. Creation of villager council, citizen like community boards.
Structure within local government We have discussed the administrative structure of local government in the last lecture and it was mentioned that the executive branch of each district government has 10 to 14 departments, The DCO, the highest-ranking civil servant in the district, heads the District Coordination department. An Executive District officer (EDO) heads each of the remaining departments. The staff at district and tehsil level was mentioned. In addition three groups of employees were assigned to the new district governments. These were:
Under Devolution Plan, there were no shifts of responsibility from the federal to the provincial governments. The initial attempt was to bring about changes that would not require any constitutional amendment, which the devolution of any function to the local governments from the Federal Legislative List (or even the Concurrent List) would have required.
As the previous table indicates, significant functional transfers did occur from provincial to local governments.
Federal-provincial In Pakistan, revenue sharing is the dominant form of federal-provincial fiscal relations. The main source of provincial revenues is a transfer based on a share of federal tax collections. The decision on the list of taxes (“divisible pool”), the ratio of the provincial-federal share of the pool and the formula for its distribution to the provinces is to be fixed at least once every five years by the National Finance Commission (NFC). This has been discussed in the topic Public Finance.
Provincial–Local Transfer All the four provincial government share resources with district governments. Just as there is Federal Divisible Pool, there is Provincial Divisible Pool. This Pool comprise: transfer from federal divisible pool, straight transfers from federal government and provincial tax revenue. Sindh PFC estimates the shares of provincial and district government for both current and development expenditure. The Sindh PFC decided that for current expenditure, the Provincial Divisible Pool comprises:
Federal divisible pool transfer Federal straight transfers Provincial tax revenue
The transfers to districts were based on gap between district expenditure and revenue transfers from provincial government to districts on the basis of population, tax collection and backwardness index of districts.
Now we will examine the weaknesses and strengths (success) of Devolution Plan and Local Government Ordinance 2000.
We will first look at the weaknesses and then strengths. Some of the weaknesses of the local government system are:
- An attempt to undermine provincial autonomy. The provinces now have to systematically evolve mechanism to share resources. Also prior to this system, provinces were autonomous and had centralized system. People from remove areas in the provinces had no access to provincial headquarters.
- Violation of a fundamental structure of constitution. The Constitution does not provide local government structure.
- Resistance of bureaucracy against system. The power of bureaucracy has weakness and at the district level DCO is answerable to elected nazim.
- Role of members of legislative assembly. The members of legislature have greater role in the development of the area and more answerable to people.
Some of the strengths of the system are:
1. Unleashed horse of bureaucracy has been bridled. The office of DC has been now brought under the control of elected representative. 2. Elimination of urban-rural division. Attempt has been made to reduce the gap between urban and rural areas. 3. Formula - based division of financial resources. The PFC now has to share resources under a formula, which is logical and appropriate.
4. Grass root organizations. The local government system has established grass root organizations like citizen community board to oversea the working of government organization. **5. Enhanced representation of women.
- Political linkage
- Autonomy of local Representatives**
Conclusions Examined local government structure and functions in greater detail. Also examined the weaknesses and strengths of local government.
