Impact of Authoritarianism on Democratisation and Local Governance in Pakistan: Historical Perspectives

AbstractThis paper narrates the history of authoritarianism in the post-independence Pakistan and its effect on the process and prospects of democratisation and the possibilities of institutionalisation of local government reforms. The political history of Pakistan after the independence and other associated contextual factors highly differentiate her contemporary political organisation from other comparable countries in South Asia. For instance, India and Pakistan emerged as independent states from the colonial rule on the same day and both states inherited the almost similar administrative setups from the British rule nonetheless, the subsequent development of democratic credentials and the establishment of local governments as a regular third tier of government in India unequivocally distinguishes her case from that of Pakistan's. Pakistan's six decades of chaotic history has seen frequent changes in government including three major military regimes. The politically centralising factors have led Pakistan to become a security state where the apex twin institution i.e. the civil-military bureaucracy takes the lead in running the government and state's affairs at all levels. In such a context, the process of democratisation has remained precarious at large.Key Words: Authoritarianism, Democratisation, Local Governments and Pakistan.IntroductionPakistan became independent in chaotic political circumstances, which made worse the already embedded regional and local identity problems in the Indian Sub-continent. An effective strategy for the delegation of political, administrative and fiscal authority to the regional levels could have proved to be a long-term solution to the centrifugal forces that threatened the national unity and territorial integration of the state. However, the authoritarian leaderships of the country opted for nurturing the civil-military bureaucracy for containing the regional political uprising and eventually Pakistan's army and civil administration became the most powerful and domineering institutions of the country. Effective decentralisation reforms were crucial not only for the pacification of the secessionist uprising by accommodating the interests of regional socio-political actors but also for meeting the diversified social services needs of Pakistan's society that is geographically scattered and highly fragmented across the social, political and economical divisions. This paper reveals that the rhetoric of decentralisation has only been abused as a justification for protracting incumbency of authoritarian regimes and for re-directing the stream of political power and administrative authority towards the centre.The three major sets of local government reforms were designed and implemented by the military dictators in such a manner that fragmented the regional political power bases into smaller and politically insignificant entities. Given the circumstances, the civil administration and public sector organisations under the central command of military establishments failed to meet the social services demands from a burgeoning population. Since the governing powers and authority of civil-military bureaucracy expanded beyond the legitimate constitutional limits, the institutionalisation of other critical institutions of governance like judiciary, political society, economic society and civil society was severely hampered by a corresponding consequential impact. Eventually, the political and civil society of Pakistan became characterised with features like the absence of issue based politics, the use of executive power to suppress the political opposition, politicisation and corruption of bureaucracy, organisationally weak and dynastic political parties, politics based on ethnic ideologies rather than manifestoes, factionalism, and hegemony within the political parties.Historical BackgroundMohammad Ali Jinnah was the founder of Pakistan who got involved in the politics of Indian subcontinent as an active member of the Indian National Congress. …