It is the fundamental absurdity of Pakistan's governance system that the most basic tier of government, the one closest to citizens, is treated like an optional widget that can be turned off whenever it suits higher political interests. Local government is not some exotic policy idea. It is governance, it is development, it is the lived experience of citizens from Quetta to Gilgit, from Sukkur to Muzaffarabad, and yet we keep revisiting its absence with a curious mixture of urgency and habitual delay.

In a country where politics is permanently staged at the level of national security, diplomatic chess, foreign engagement and high-stakes power games, talking about streetlights, drains, waste collection and local councils can sound almost comical, as if governance is too small a matter for serious people. Until, of course, a daylong fire engulfs several people in a metropolitan, the garbage piles up, the drains overflow and the "minor" issues begin to define everyday life far more than the grand narratives do.

Pakistan's Constitution, through Article........

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