DEVOLUTION PLAN – I:Country Information, Tiers or Level of Government

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Introduction To Public Administration�MGT111

LESSON 40

DEVOLUTION PLAN � I

In the last lecture we discussed the office of Deputy Commissioner and the challenges it

confronted due to increased population and concentration of power in one office. Today we shall examine

the concept of devolution and local government and its structure.

Country Information

Pakistan has an area of 796,096 sq.km. Its estimated population is 145 million. It has four

provinces, territory of Islamabad and federally administered tribal areas. There are over 100 districts in the

country.

Prior to devolution of services to the local areas, the administrative structure was divided into

Province, Division and District. The real government functions were performed at the district level. The

division was headed by Commissioner and district by the Deputy Commissioner. As we discussed in the last

lecture the office of Deputy Commission was overloaded by work. The Deputy Commissioner became

inaccessible. Therefore, there was need for devolving the services to the people's representatives. We now

examine the definition of devolution.

Devolution Defined

Devolution is defined as the transfer of resources and power (and often, tasks) to lower-level

authorities which are largely or wholly independent of higher levels of government, and which are

democratic in some way and to some degree (Manor, 1997).

Encyclopedia Britannica:

"Local Govt. means the authority which determines and executes measures within an area inside

and smaller then the whole state."

Why Devolve?

What is the need for devolution? There could be many reasons to devolve but the main reason is

to: improve governance and public service delivery by increasing:

1. Allocative efficiency: through better matching of public services to local preferences. It

means that instead the centre deciding to provide service the local people should identity their

preferences for services.

2. Productive efficiency: through increased accountability of local governments to citizens,

fewer levels of bureaucracy, and better knowledge of local costs. It is more efficient to provide

services at local levels because people know their needs, they know at what cost services can be

provided and there will be fewer levels of bureaucracy.

Tiers or Level of Government

In a democratically devolved government, there are three levels of governments. These levels are:

Central government at the centre

Provincial or state government

Local or devolved government

Obligatory Functions

Each level of government performs its own functions. For example the government at the Centre

has the responsibility of defence, currency regulation foreign affairs. As you may recall the Constitution

provides Federal Legislative List and Concurrent List, which defines the functions of federal government

and both federal and provincial government. But no functions are given for local government. However,

the Local Government ordinance provides certain obligatory functions that the local government must

perform. Some of these functions are:

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Supply of wholesome water

Construction and maintenance of public streets

Lighting and watering public streets

Regulation trades

Maintenance and support of public hospitals

Establishing and maintenances of primary schools

Registration of births and death

Naming streets and numbering houses

From these functions what we can infer is that these functions are very small in magnitude but very

essential for local areas and local people. So it remains the responsibility of the local government to provide

these services to local people.

Discretionary Functions

While the above are obligatory functions i.e. that local government must perform. There are

functions that local government may or may not perform. These are called discretionary function. Some of

the discretionary functions are:-

Security or removing dangerous building or places

Housing for low income groups

Promotion of welfare of municipal employees

Provision of transport facilities

Local Government in Pakistan

In 1947 the area that comprised Pakistan had not so developed systems of local government and

the local government existed was under severe bureaucratic control of the deputy commissioner who played

a crucial role in policy making.

The Period 1958-1969

In 1958 the "Basic Democracies" system was introduced, which created 80,000 "basic democrats,"

or union councilors in the country. These local leaders (union leaders at union council) constituted the

Electoral College for presidential elections and for elections to the national and provincial legislature created

under the constitution promulgated in 1962.

Under the Basic Democracy Ordinance 1959 areas were defined under the jurisdiction of a

municipal body.Town committees were set up for towns having population of less then 14000.Town

committees were expected to perform 37 functions including promotion of social welfare, health etc. In

urban areas each council elected a chairman amongst its member who served as executive head of town

committee.

Union council was also assigned 37 functions. The Tehsil council was to coordinate the activities of

union council and union committees in its jurisdiction. But Tehsil councils had no taxation powers like

union councils.

Until 1969 this arrangement listed. A general election was held in 1970 and in 1973 new

constitution was promulgated.

Constitutional Provisions of Local Government

The Constitution enforced on 14 August, 1973 by articles 175(3) that "Judiciary shall be separated

progressively from the executive within 3 years from the commencing day". Article 37(i) states that "The

state shall decentralize government administration so as to facilitate expeditious disposal of its business to

meet the convenience and requirement of the public". But there was no formal article in the Constitution

that would mention the Local Government Creation. As it is mentioned that governments from time to

time established local government. In 1959 the Basic Democracy Ordinance was promulgated and in 1979

also Local Government Ordinance was announced under which local body elections were held. This Local

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government ordinance is being amended in Punjab, Sindh and NWFP, while Balochistan's local

governments' ordinance 1980 is also being amended.

Local Government Plan 2000

There were two broad aim of Local Government Plan 2000. One was the Devolution of political

powers i.e. there should be three tiers of elected leadership having vision, mission and goals and

Decentralization of administrative authority; i.e. more autonomy to district departments

More specifically the purpose of changing the system was to:

decentralize administrative authority to district level and below;

allow public participation in decision making;

facilitate monitoring of government functionary by monitoring committees;

eliminate delays in decision making and disposal of business;

ensure functioning of related offices in an integrated manner

redress grievances of people against mal-administration

Concepts

Devolution:

Transfer of resources and authority to lowest level.

Obligatory function:

Functions that are essentially to be performed by local government.

Allocative efficiency:

Services and goods that match the need of local people.

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