VETERAN parliamentarian Khawaja Asif recently described the 18th Amendment as a ‘dhakosla’ — a gimmick that misleads and covers up the truth. This is an important point. The 18th Constitutional Amendment, adopted in 2010, had, inter alia, devolved several key subjects, notably health and education, to the provinces. Accordingly, the seventh National Finance Commission recommended a much higher revenue share for provinces (57.5 per cent) from the Federal Divisible Pool, leaving the centre with only 42.5pc. All cheered initially. However, the resources remained concentrated in the provincial capitals and weren’t devolved to the local governments (LGs). The quality of life for ordinary people witnessed no improvement. The spirit behind the amendment was defeated.

Why are the provinces not devolving resources to the grassroots? First, provincial governments prefer to manage the funds directly and provincial finance commissions do not ensure formula-based transfer of resources to the districts. So we see megaprojects in the bigger cities devouring all resources at the cost of basic needs in the peripheries. Second, MNAs and MPAs view strong LGs as competitors. They would rather manage development funds themselves to create their own........

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