Pakistan : Complete Profile - What is GIS - World Health Organization

Health Systems Profile- Pakistan Regional Health Systems Observatory- EMRO
Elections were held for the national and provincial assemblies in October 2002 and for the Senate in
February 2003. Next elections for the national and provincial assemblies will be held in 2008.
Politics and Political Parties: Successive governments in Pakistan have abused and tinkered with the
country’s constitution, creating a corrupt political culture, weak civil society, severe human rights
violations and lack of tolerance in society. The people of Pakistan have never tasted the real fruits of
democracy, the absence of which has given birth to ethnic and inter-provincial disputes and discord,
political feuds and religious hostility. A military coup in 1999 appointed the head of the army, General
Pervez Musharraf, as president. With powers to dismiss the elected government backed by strong
influence over the judiciary, Musharraf and his senior generals have been able to steer the legislative
program and electoral procedures. The three parties with the greatest electoral support since 1988,
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Sharif (PML-N) have splintered into
numerous parties. Officially, 73 parties contested the 2002 National Assembly elections, but only 3
percent of voters were registered as members of a political party. As a result of elections in 2002, a
coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) assumed control of provincial
assemblies in Punjab and Sindh and the National Assembly. This party has been closely associated
with the government of General Musharraf. Parties often have no constitutions, membership lists, or
documentation of funding sources. Subsequent gestures towards a return to democracy have been
unconvincing. Musharraf himself has extended his presidential term to 2007 and in 2004 reneged on
a promise to separate his roles of president and head of the army, a combination disallowed by the
constitution. However the controversial suspension and subsequent reinstatement of the
independent-minded Chief Justice, Iftikhar Choudry, united the judiciary against any further abuse of
constitutional procedures. On November 3, 2007 President Musharraf declared an emergency rule
across Pakistan and purported to suspend the Constitution. Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar has been
appointed as the new chief justice of Pakistan, due to the refusal of the previous chief justice to not
to take oath under Provisional Constitution Order, though he himself took oath under PCO in 1999,
this time declaring it unconstitutional. Both presidential and parliamentary elections due later in 2008,
Musharraf is coming under tremendous pressure to restore true democracy by separating the military
from the political process. 51 Emergency rule was lifted on 16 th December 2007.
Key political events/reforms
Local Government Reforms and Devolution
The present Government has initiated a number of reforms to address governance problems and
long-standing structural challenges. On the political side, the Devolution Plan announced in March
2000, is a fundamental reform. It aims to replace the existing highly centralized and control-oriented
government with a three-tiered local government system that institutes "people-centered, rights and
responsibility-based, and service oriented" government structures. The elected local governments
took power on 14 August 2001 in over 100 districts in the four provinces. 52
Devolution, first from provincial to elected local governments, and then from the federal to provincial
level, will bring fundamental changes to how all public services are planned, financed, and managed.
The bulk of basic poverty-focused services, for health, education, agriculture, water, and natural
resource management has been devolved to district and lower local governments. Provinces, once
predominantly responsible for service delivery, will assume new responsibilities to support and
supervise the performance of local governments, not as administrative appendages of the provincial
bureaucracy, but as independent corporate bodies accountable to the electorate through political
leaders.
In addition to elected councils, the Local Government Ordinance 2001 provides a number of
institutionalized opportunities for citizens to participate in council affairs. Citizen community boards,
and public safety and justice committees will monitor local government activities. Citizen community
boards are also empowered to prioritize investments for up to 50 percent of the local development
budget for basic infrastructure and services. Public safety commissions at district, provincial, and
national levels, introduced by this Government under amendments to the Police Act of 1861, offer
new possibilities to depoliticize the police and to increase their accountability to citizens. 52
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