Local Government Under Army Rule: A Comparative Analysis of Zia ul Haq and Pervez Musharraf Local Government System

Syed Ali Raza Zaidi

doi:10.7176/jesd/10-6-15

Abstract

Military of Pakistan dominates the country. In this ruling system in order to establish democracy from the beginning the government initiates local government institutions. As Pakistan is playing its instrumental role in employing the principles of democratic system, the local government is the third branch of the dominion and an essential part of the administration.The chief objective of this study is to determine and analyze the performance of Local Governments in Pakistan under the military reign of Zia ul Haq, and Pervez Musharraf Local Government system and recognizing the challenges faced by the system and to check the similarities and dissimilarities between the local government systems.Zia ul haq presented the local government system with some specific feature. Mainly, the provinces and the Federally managed areas were given the independency to make their own local government laws which led to the disclosure of eight different ordinances. The second one, for the rural and urban areas, same local government laws were made to avoid contradictions and to bring pleasing effect in the rural and urban sectors by making it convenient to comprehend an invalidation of the guideline of democratic self-management in perspective of the immanent, component of bureaucratic control which did not permit the delegate component to gain remarkable aptitude in the management of local issues. To close, the period going before the destruction of Ayub Khan ruling, turned out to be a feeble time in the historical background of local government of Pakistan. Keywords: Performance of Local Governments; Bureaucratic control; Rural and Urban sectors local government of Pakistan. DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-6-15 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

Highlights

The History of Pakistan tells that local government organizations are initiated by the national governments
In the Indo-Pak Sub landmass Panchayats, the Greek city-states and whatever is left of South Asia and the areas, districts and Parishes of England and America, the convention of originating national, state or provincial governments all have followed by them
After the disclosure of widespread interchanges an essential supporting structure and the sense of patriotism solidified, matters of local concerns have been given the focal control which has led to the creation of more powerful local government frameworks which is dissimilar from elected or central governments, having special authorities and powers

Summary

Introduction

The History of Pakistan tells that local government organizations are initiated by the national governments. Under the new four levels government system, rural areas had three government levels; union council, tehsil council and district council, while, town committees, municipal corporation and city/metropolitan corporation – operated in urban areas Politically important they were not complemented by any further decentralization of federal or provincial administrative functions or financial powers to the local level (Cheema, Khwaja, & Qadir, 2005). Local government system was introduced by Ayub Khan but soon changed and revived into an elected local government system by the second Martial Law Regime of General Zia. Akbar Zaidi in 2005 describes that according to the LGO 1979, in rural areas the local governments exists at three levels, i.e. Union Councils, Tehsil Councils and District Councils. Provincial administration was left with a limited authority to regulate local government functions but still enjoyed the authority to adjourn the declarations of the local governments (Cheema, Khwaja, & Qadir, 2005)

Density of Population

Findings

Conclusion