Punjab’s local government limbo
Local governments in Pakistan function [or dysfunction] under their respective provincial frameworks as Article 140-A of the constitution of Pakistan requires each province to establish a local government system. It…
Local democracy
THE Sindh government recently informed the ECP of its inability to hold local elections soon, citing the shortage of police personnel as the key reason. In the same vein, amendments…
Governance for local government: Part – IV
The rules of business have to be changed accordingly. It would be imperative that the chief executive officers of metropolitan corporations and large district councils are appointed from among Grade…
Governance for local governments: Part – III
Proposed governance system for local governments: In light of the experience of the 2001 LGO, let us now examine what needs to be done to avoid the weaknesses of the…
Governance for local government: Part – II
The fragmentation of development projects into small schemes catered to the narrow interests of the local communities without any sense of priority, linkages, or widespread coverage. Ideally, the transfer of…
Governance for local governments: Part – I
This article is divided into three parts. The first part deals with ‘why local government?’ The second with experiences during the 2001-2009 period and finally in the third part it…
Empower the local
Pakistan has seldom enjoyed a fully functional local government system. In most cases, military dictators were more interested in installing a local-bodies mechanism that could serve their own nefarious designs…
Distribution of resources among federation, provinces and local governments
History is replete with evidence that economics is the underlying basis of most political actions and reactions. In the case of states that are governed as a federation such as…
Global acclaim, local defame
Wonderful, Awful. Best, Worst. Developing, Destroying. Rising, falling. Good, bad. This is not a test of opposites in grammar, rather a test of intent and view point in evaluating Pakistan’s…
With fees and laws, India rushes to save vanishing groundwater
Indian authorities are imposing a new fee and stricter laws to rein in groundwater use, as the world's biggest extractor struggles to find ways to conserve the fast dwindling resource.…
