KARACHI, 18 July — Newly-elected women councilors in the southern Sindh province have put the government on notice that they would sooner relinquish office than raise funds from impoverished communities, as they are required to do.
This is the first visible sign of dissent among the councilors who are widely regarded as the foot-soldiers of the military-led government’s devolution of power plan. Differences first cropped up at a local government training session this month when government officials explained that councilors would have to raise funds from small communities to carry out development work. Most of the councilors then complained that the government had steamrolled over their objections to public fund-raising. “The government did not listen to us,” said 27-year-old Talath Sultana, who won a union council seat from Mirpurkhas.
The councilors on Monday reminded the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) that they would require substantial development assistance from the government. They pointed out that devolution was not meant to be a burden on the people and expressed doubts whether the voters in their constituencies could by themselves afford to alleviate poverty, provide cheap housing and quality education or improve health care delivery.
The female councilors of the province will adopt a watch-and-wait policy until Aug. 14 when the government is supposed to announce its final local government program. But if by then the government does not earmark development funds for their constituencies the councilors say they will resign. Non-governmental organizations are taking their threat quite seriously.
The women councilors told participants at a workshop on community empowerment that their warning was not a publicity stunt but driven by genuine humanitarian concerns.
Marvi Pervaiz Abbas, a newly elected councilor from Thatta, and her counterpart in Hyderabad Sana Sidi couldn’t resist calling the funds-from-people scheme part of a hidden agenda. “Clearly the government has a hidden agenda. They want to shirk away from their responsibility,” the two women told the workshop’s facilitators.
“People are already paying taxes. How will they pay more out of their pockets?” asked Ms Abbas. “I can’t understand why the government is not cooperating with us,” she said, unable to conceal her sense of helplessness. None of the elected councilors will be getting paid for their work. But of course that is not why they have directed criticism at the government plan.
Overall their trust in local government appears to be eroding. Now that they are confronted with the reality of funding shortages their enthusiasm is waning and doubts are creeping up on them. The women elected from the rural hinterland openly express their fears over the local government system.
