Local government system had always been a non-decisive, inconsistent and debatable issue in the context of Pakistan since its inception. Every government, be it was civilian or military, tried to experiment with it every time... [ view full abstract ]
Local government system had always been a non-decisive, inconsistent and debatable issue in the context of Pakistan since its inception. Every government, be it was civilian or military, tried to experiment with it every time and gave away altogether a new way to manage local masses. Various scholars have attributed different causes to it. When democracy returned in 2008 after almost nine years of military rule, the famous eighteenth Amendment was passed in 2010 which was unprecedented in the political history of Pakistan. One of the aspects of this Amendment was autonomy given to the provinces and local government was declared as one of the subjects on which provinces could exercise their autonomy. In the result of which local government ordinances were passed by four provinces, though the complete implementation of the ordinances is still awaited, nonetheless, inter provincial comparison of local government ordinances worth attention by scholar of public services and public management. This proposed research paper is aimed at accomplishing two objectives; 1) discovering theory practice gap between public value creation and co production in the local governance of Pakistan and 2) a comparison of local government ordinances of the provinces; Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochista
Local government ordinances of the four provinces shall be analyzed on various parameters like fiscal decentralization, administrative decentralization, degree of people’s participation (hierarchical analysis of the local government),service delivery, power distance, to mention a few. It will also highlight implementation issues of these local government ordinances of four provinces. This will be coupled with various theoretical insights to merge theoretical and practical realities.
The paper will be analyzed with the help of theories of public value creation and co production. Detailed content analysis of the ordinances is proposed to be carried out. Each local government ordinance will be analyzed and comparison will be made leading to the conclusion that how it can effect provincial autonomy and federalism.
Following are the proposed research question(s) of the given study
- How theories of public value creation and co production befit with the reality of local governance in Pakistan?
- How theories of public value creation and co production vary across different provinces currently?
It will add up to the theory and knowledge about reform strategies and issues of implementation related to developing context of Pakistan. It will add up to the base of theory and will give unique perspective.
