Exploring the Derailing Factors of Local Governments in Pakistan: Structural Issues in Musharraf’s Devolution of Power Plan

Abstract

For more than seven decades Pakistan is struggling for a viable local government system. Even one of the most empowered local government system introduced by military dictator Pervez Musharraf was uprooted by civilian government. This research attempts to explore the structural issues in the local government system introduced by Musharraf regime in order to find reasons of its derailment. Comprehensive literature review has been conducted to search for the common theme reported by the researchers so far. The study found that indirect and non-party based elections of Nazim, structural financial imbalance, tussle among provincial and district governments, unreal and idealistic objectives, abolition of commissioner office, non-establishment of district cadre, gender discrimination, and flawed organizational structure of devolved departments were substantial structural issues in Musharraf’s local government system. Moreover, the two main pillars of the political system i.e. bureaucrats and politicians considered empowered local bodies as their rivals. Thus they left no stone unturned to cause hurdles in smooth working of distric government. To alleviate political rivalry among politicians, it is recommended to systematically involve MNAs and MPAs in the development work with the District Nazims. On the other hand, establishment of district cadre is required to end the struggle between provincial bureaucrats and the district government