The History of Local Governance in Pakistan: What Lessons to Learn?

Most studies on decentralisation in developing countries reveal that the failure of decentralizing was due to inadequate local government framework, ineffective implementation or capture of local government by interest groups or a combination of these factors. The result was the inadequate delivery of services at the local level and failure to strengthen grassroots democracy. We argue that unlike most developing countries, the lessons learned from the case of Pakistan demonstrates that right from the outset the purpose of decentralisation was not to decentralise power and authority but to meet two prime objectives. First, strengthening of civil and military bureaucracies to establish the most centralised and coercive government structures through the political marginalisation of mainstream political parties and; second to co-opt newly emerging politicians from local councils who could act as conduits between the local constituencies and military established governments.

Keywords: decentralisation, good governance, military dominance, patronage client politics.