Verified answer

Local Bodies system is not really introduced by Pres. Musharraf but it is just a modified shape of the older Local body system which was first introduced in 1959 under the Basic Democracies System.

A brief history is as under;

The existence of local government is not formally embodied in the constitution.

Local governments in Pakistan exist under the supervision of the various provincial governments, where provincial governments have merely delegated some of their functions and responsibilities to local governments by the promulgation of ordinances.

Realizing the fact that no one government can survive without popular support of the communities, the first organized effort of setting-up local self-government after independence was made in 1959 under the Basic Democracies System. It was a new model of local government introduced to ensure direct participation of the people in managing their own affairs through representative’s bodies set up down to the village level. There were two separate laws for rural (i.e. Basic Democracy Ordinance 1959) and Urban Councils (i.e. Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960).

It established a four tier hierarchical system of local council throughout the country, namely

1 - the Union Councils (for rural areas),

2-Town Committees (for urban areas), and Tehsil Councils,

3 - District Councils and

4 - Divisional Councils.

The Tehsil Council was the second tier above the Union Council. It was mainly concerned with the development activities in the areas. The members of the Tehsil Council included a chairperson of all the Union Councils and a chairperson of the municipal committees, when concerned with the developments in the Tehsil.

Under this system, each administrative district had a District Council, which consisted of both official and elected members. An Electoral College consisting of the Chairmen of the Union Council, Union Committees and Town Committees within the district elected the latter. Official members were the district heads of nation building departments. The Deputy Commissioner was the ex-officio Chairman of the District Council while the Vice Chairman was selected from among the elected members. The fourth tier was the Divisional Council with the Commissioner as the Chairman. Again the non-officials and officials concerned with the nation building departments were taken as members in equal number. The Basic Democrats formed the Electoral College for electing the President and members of the provincial and national assemblies. These councils became inactive after 1969 and were finally abolished in June 1971.

The scheme suffered from some built-in-structural contradictions. It was based on a rigid hierarchical structure that could not meaningfully involve the rural masses in planning and implementation of the projects. Due to its partial elective characteristic, the element of official chairmanship and nomination at all-important levels, it resulted in the failure of real decentralization of the development process.

Moreover, the corruption issues and allocation of funds in shape of political bribery weakened the confidence of the rural masses and the system gradually lost the support of the society and had to fall.

Heretofore one law about Basic Democracies and another law about Municipal Committees applied to all provinces. In the new order each province passed its own local government law which were passed in the early seventies. For the Punjab, a law was passed in 1972, but it was never enforced. Another Act was passed in 1975.

The new law provided for the constitution of Mohalla (Lane) Committees. Market Committees were independent institutions. The new law integrated Market Committees with Municipal Committees. Under the new law, the functions of Improvement Trusts were also entrusted to Municipal Committees.