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Local governments have
existed in the Indian subcontinent for many centuries, with the
first municipal corporation set-up in Madras in 1688 by the East
India Company. In 1842, the Conservancy Act which lead to the
formation of sanitary committees for garbage disposal became the
first formal measure of municipal organization which applied to the
Bengal Presidency. In Karachi, the Board of Conservancy was
established in 1846, while in Lahore and Rawalpindi, the Municipal
Act was passed in 1867.
In 1947 the areas that
constituted Pakistan had few developed systems of local government
and they were confined mainly to Punjab. Wherever local government
existed, it was not based on adult franchise and its agenda and
budget was under severe bureaucratic control of the Deputy
Commissioner who played a critical role in determining its policy.
In years following Pakistan’s independence, decentralization schemes
were employed to strengthen the economy and governance of the
country.
The plan to establish
genuine democracy at the grassroots level throughout the country was
announced on March 23, 2001. The plan required the establishment of
a three-tier local government system in every district of Pakistan.
The Local Government
Ordinance integrates the rural with the urban local governments on
the one hand, and the bureaucracy with the local governments on the
other, into one coherent structure in which the district
administration and police are answerable to the elected chief
executive of the district. Citizen monitoring by elected
representatives, the civil society’s involvement with development,
and a system of effective check and balances, completes the hard
core of the political structure and system of the Local Government.”
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