Reports, leaked or planted, about a federal plan to give Islamabad an elected assembly with its own government headed by a chief minister have come as a breath of fresh air. How long this fresh air will blow is anybody’s guess.
The way forward for a stable and prosperous Pakistan is the immediate institution of strong, administratively and financially empowered elected local governments and more provinces redrawn on administrative rather than ethnic considerations.
It will be 80 years since independence a year from now and we are still trotting instead of galloping. Why? Because of the concentration of all powers at the centre and then in the provinces which, in the name of autonomy (the 18th Amendment and NFC awards), are plundering this country to their hearts’ content.
I have written many a time that India created three states from its Punjab, which is smaller than ours. Is India weaker because of it? India created a second province, Jharkhand, from the state of Bihar. Is India weaker because of it? India divided the Hyderabad state into two provinces, or states as they are called there. Is India weaker today because of that?
If India, a much larger country with a much larger population, did so with visible success, bringing governance and justice closer to the people, why can Pakistan not do the same? Why should the country and its people be kept hostage to the political interests of certain vested interests?
In the case of Islamabad, we have the Delhi model before us, which has an elected assembly and an appointed lieutenant governor. It has the power to collect local taxes and spend them as it considers appropriate.
Let federal government take the lead and move ahead via the required constitutional amendment to initiate something the Shehbaz government will cherish as a prized legacy. It will also strengthen the case for more provinces.
The recent leaked reports about the alleged 28th Amendment have many negatives and have been rightly criticised. We should not move the country to a destination where it finds itself at a dead end. This country was created by the will of the people and it is their will alone that will take it to its cherished goal.
Having said that, I must say that the proposal to convert Gwadar and Karachi into federal territories, if actually under consideration, is a practical, doable and much-needed step. In this regard, we must remember that for the first eight years after independence, that is until 1955, Balochistan had two administrative parts.
Five states, including Kalat, Kharan, Mekran and Lasbela, were put together and called the Balochistan States Union, with its capital in Kalat and its own chief secretary, while the other areas were called the Chief Commissioner’s Province, with Quetta as the capital. As for Gwadar, the federal government can rightly, and in the larger national interest, convert it into a separate administrative unit with an elected government of its own.
Pakistan is militarily strong. Pakistan is not poor in resources, both material and human. Why then is Pakistan still trotting and not galloping? Because those setting its course and priorities cannot relate to its needs. The needs of any state or territory are set by its people. Decentralising and democratising are the key.
One hopes the Seahbaz-led government looks beyond the immediate and, with the support of its allies, achieves for Pakistan what has so far been just a game of hide-and-seek. Let us celebrate Pakistan’s 80th birthday next year with the country set on a course that our future generations will benefit from, rather than accuse us of shortsightedness.
The writer is a former federal secretary.
