THE disdain that major political parties harbour towards local governments is no secret. No party in power wants to lose control over the bureaucracy and the resources that their leadership uses to dispense political patronage aimed at pampering their constituencies. Added to this is the fear of having to share powers with, or cede them to, rivals at the local level, thus losing their leverage over the voters. These concerns continue, despite the LGs` minimal financial and administrative authority. While true for the entire country, this is especially the case in Punjab, which has been deprived of local representation since the PTI government dissolved LG institutions controlled by its rival the PML-N in 2019. Repeated interventions by the ECP notwithstanding, governments in Punjab have since avoided holding LG polls mostly on the pretext of altering the legal framework for the local bodies.

The reason the provinces are able to delay local elections for as long as they want is embedded in our Constitution. Indeed, the Constitution binds the federation and the provinces to establish LG systems in their territorial jurisdictions to devolve political, administrative, and financial powers to the third tier of government. But, unlike the case of the federal and provincial legislatures and governments, it does not provide a detailed framework to give constitutional cover to the establishment and powers of this missing link in the democratic chain. Though the ECP has again instructed Punjab to expedite the finalisation of its new LG model so that it can begin the process of holding polls, the government is unlikely to heed its instructions unless it finds the political situation favourable to the ruling PML-N. In the absence of a clear constitutional LG framework, Punjab has more than one way to scuttle any ECP directive and stall new LG polls for as long as it wants. And it will do so because of the challenge it faces from the PTI.