Should PTI target Local Bodies Members?

After the unforgivable blunders committed on the Swat issue whereby the party leadership was happily arguing in favor of PCO II - i.e. "Nizam-e-Adl" which also came via the barrel of the gun - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Chairman Khan have an opportunity to redeem themselves and fill the vacuum intentionally and rather criminally created by the two mainstream parties, the PPP and PML-N.

PTI has done substantial work in trying to build grassroots support in the dozen or so major districts of Pakistan. However, there are over 124 districts in the country. Reaching them with the current resource constraints and pace will take several years. Rather than wasting time calling for national mid-term elections when the party has not even had any of its internal party elections much less presence in most of the districts of Pakistan, innovative ways to reach the grassroots should be entertained and applied.

One such way, found discussed in drawing rooms at least, is to team up with the members of the local bodies - many of whom are associated with the PML-Q. These local bodies members have over 8 years of experience at the grassroot levels. They have dealt with the daily problems of their constituents and were compelled to at least give attention to them if not offer solutions. They now find themselves ostracized by the new government. But this doesn't mean these 'grassroot politicians' will simply disappear. PTI could integrate them into its fold. This would give PTI immediate access to nearly all the districts of the country. Plus, the 'administrative' web the PPP and the PML-N want to weave will result in failure as no civil servant running the districts would be willing to spend even 1/100th the time listening to the farmers and laborers that a local councillor had to give his attention to. The hara-kiri that the PPP and PML-N want to commit offers PTI a chance to embrace the members of the local bodies into the party and enter into a win-win alliance. The 'administrators' will naturally fail and the local bodies members, despite being 'tarnished' by Musharaf, would easily be seen as both accessible and preferable than the 'babus' (bureaucrats).

The Pakistan media and the people at large have tasted the benefits of the local bodies system. The media has unanimously supported the local bodies. Everyone I have spoken to in my UC and friends from other districts support the local bodies system as it gives them direct access to their representatives who don't sit in Lahore or Islamabad, but are right next door.

Chairman Khan has often said that the role of MPA's and MNA's in a parliamentary system is not to build toilets or build roads (when Ayaz Amir became an MPA in 1997, he wrote he was allocated 150 commodes to distribute to his constituents). MPA's and MNA's are part of the legislative branch and should have very little to do with development funds. Too much power into the hands of MPA's and MNA's is creating grounds for corruption. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. While there are no statistics to show that local bodies are 'less corrupt', it is rather difficult to make grandscale kickbacks at the union council level with 2 lacs budget allocations than you can with 2 crores at the provincial levels.

PTI has done the right thing by calling for local bodies elections and should take it up with the same motivation it took up the movement to restore the judiciary. The party would be supporting a proven system - despite some of its flaws which could be improved - that in letter and spirit was a force of decentralization and handed power to the towns, alleys and mohallahs of the nation.

In any case, this blog is meant to guage whether PTI should invite and entice all the local bodies members into the party fold. They are tried and tested politicians who could give the party direct access across the districts of Pakistan in one fell swoop. On the other hand they are former allies of Musharaf. It's a dilemma but one worth entertaining.

[published as blog on www.insaf.pk]