The real face of political pandits

According to the media, Mayor Peshawar along with chairmen of six tehsils, village councils, women, and minority leaders registered their peaceful protest for their rights in front of the KP Assembly on Tuesday.

According to Mayor and his colleagues, the provincial government is depriving the local government representatives every passing day and issuing rampant directives for making Local Governments subservient to Deputy Commissioners and Civil Bureaucracy. He said, they were not granted their powers and whatever authority they had been snatched over the past eight months, which is sheer injustice to the people of Peshawar. The local public informed the government that they will hold protests in front of the Chief Minister’s House, and in front of PTI’s Chief residence at Bani Gala in the next phase of their protests

In fact, all political parties of the countries without any exemption had been in efforts, to sum up all executive and administrative powers in themselves at the local, provincial or federal level to steer the country in an authoritarian manner. After the 18th amendment, local government has become a provincial subject, hence, the parties ruling the province had always manipulated and interefered in the local administration to strengthen their stronghold at the constituency level.

According to critics, this centralization of powers had turned Pakistani democracy into a civilian dictatorship and political parties had become mere tools of the influential to gain power in the country. Apparently, such nefarious political motives did not permit the local government system to flourish and serve the masses like a civilized society. After the restoration of democracy in the country in 2008, the PPP, the PML-N, and the PTI restored the old British Deputy Commissioner’s rule in their provinces and local governments have become symbolic figures without any real power. In fact, non-party local bodies are the only cure for all administrative and political ailments at the district level, however, it does not suit politicians, hence the public and their leaders will be mourning until they stand up in front of the political elite for their fundamental rights.