The National Bureau of Reconstruction's district government plan proposes to merge public service with politics. The two need to be kept wide apart. The failure of public service has resulted from its unofficial involvement in politics. It has brought a bad name to the politicians as much as to the public servants. The havoc the formal merger of the two would cause and that too at the grass roots can only be imagined.
Local government is the foundation of a democratic political order.
Democracy in Pakistan has remained fragile because that foundation was never laid. In fact, the local bodies as they existed in the colonial times and in the early years of independence have also become moribund. That alone might secure the Musharraf government a niche in history. The problem is that alongside the foundations of the system the seeds of its destruction are also being sown. Even though the elections will be contested by individuals, not by parties, the councils will inevitably, sooner than later, acquire political character and affiliations.