For Rule of Law,..incompetent,untrained Nazims and devolution need to be abolished

Following is a thought provoking article, which talks about fraud of devolution and how it destroyed rule of Law and honorable traditions of Pakistan as a state..

article starts....

What should be the fate of devolution plan?

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 , The News international, Pakistan

E Anwar

Once upon a time, there used to be a deputy commissioner. He was selected through a transparent and highly competitive process, given best of the trainings in management and public administration, and had risen to the position after having acquired ample experience in the field as assistant commissioner. He represented the writ of the state in the district, exercised control over the police force, supervised activities of various departments, remained in liaison with all interest groups, provided one window services to the general public, kept a check on hoarding, black marketing, inflation, adulteration, encroachment and other related offences, and above all, coordinated relief and rescue efforts in response to natural calamities. He was able to perform these functions not only because he was backed by law but also because he wielded immense influence due to around 150 years’ long history and traditions behind his institution. His was a household name and for common man, state meant nothing else but him. He may have been a legacy of British Raj but then being such a legacy doesn’t necessarily mean that it was bad and needed to be replaced on this account alone. Besides, were not army, judiciary, educational and other departments British legacy too?

The old local government system had worked well during the colonial period and initial difficulties ridden days of Pakistan. However, when corruption, inefficiency and unfair means crept in the whole society, the bureaucracy too started losing its direction. There were instances where officers were inefficient, corrupt, arrogant or inaccessible. To put it in another way, there was nothing grossly wrong with the system; it was the conduct of its practitioners which was faulty at places. There was thus a need to bring improvement in the system and to hold such officers accountable. Instead of doing so, the tried and tested system was struck down with a single stroke of pen and new system with the name of Devolution Plan was introduced in 2001. Grade 18 deputy commissioner was replaced by a toothless grade 20 district coordination officer who did not enjoy even the fraction of effectiveness of the Deputy Commissioner as his title was unfamiliar to the overwhelmingly illiterate masses of the country and was not backed by either history or traditions. Cadre of executive magistrates, who used to be eyes and ears as well as implementing arms of the state, was abolished and the writ of the state consequently evaporated. Police was also taken out of DCO’s control and his prestige was dented to an extent where even other departments were not much bothered about him. As if this was not enough, he was made subordinate to a newly created office of the district nazim the only condition for whose election was a matric-level qualification. A hierarchy of offices was created and dozens of new officers with the titles of executive district Officers, district officers and deputy district officers were introduced. The condition was even worse at subdivision/tehsil level where after the abolition of post of assistant commissioner, no single office represented the writ of the state. In short, a lean and potentially efficient system was replaced by a bulky, complex, expensive and yet ineffective and inefficient system.

More than seven years have passed ever since the devolution plan was introduced but the plan still remains immensely unpopular with the masses. There is consensus at all hands that the plan cannot function in its present form and will have to undergo massive surgery to bring it in line with the realities on ground. In the absence of some of the powers which were considered inevitable for dispensation of highest officer of the district, the DCO is found incapable of handling many issues especially those related to law and order. On the contrary, by placing all the powers in the person of nazim, who neither has requisite training nor experience in administration, and whose only qualification is that he belongs to an influential family, group or party, it is complained that all the decisions at district level are now made in view of personal or political interests. Police has become unbridled and police excesses have become routine rather than exception. Encroachments, hoarding, inflation, adulteration and other offences of the sort go on unchecked. The ultimate sufferer is none other than the common man. The person who was at the helms of affairs during all these years was, however, not magnanimous enough to admit that the system he introduced was faulty and needed radical changes.

Now that new government is in place, sooner or later it will have to decide the fate of the devolution plan. The hard fact is that neither can we scrap the plan as a lot of resources and work has already gone into it nor can we function properly without the old system which had evolved over more than hundred years. The prudent course of action should be mixing good points of both the systems. A committee having representation of the stakeholders needs to be constituted which should analyse the realities on ground, consult extensively with the general public, hold seminars and conferences and then compile its recommendations. However, to start with, the DCO should be renamed as deputy commissioner. At the face of it, the measure seems to be a cosmetic one but it would go a long way in retrieving a great deal of lost prestige and effectiveness of the office.

The erstwhile executive magistracy also needs to be restored in its older form. It may be noted here that the recent experiment with the price magistrates proved unfruitful only because it was a new phenomenon and was not backed by history or traditions. The revival of magistracy would also bring institutional check on police and create a buffer between police and the general public. At the same time, a system of holding the deputy commissioner accountable needs to be introduced whereby his continuation in office should be linked with his performance which should in turn be assessed objectively against certain set parameters.

Changes on the same lines should also be introduced at subdivision/tehsil level. In order to reduce the size and cost of district apparatus, the portfolio of executive district officer should be abolished with deputy district officers made in charge of respective offices at subdivision/tehsil level and district officers at district level. As regards the nazims, the development related and municipal functions should be left with him with proper checks and balances so as to ensure that funds are spent in an impartial and transparent way not benefiting any particular area or group of people. In short, a proper amalgamation of good points of old and new local government systems after due consultation may bring positive change in that level of governance which has the greatest impact on the life of a common man.

The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: ehsan.anwar@hotmail.com