Derailing Factors of Devolution Plan in Pakistan: A Study of Structural Issues in District Bahawalnagar (2001–2008)

Abstract

The most ambitious local government experiment in Pakistan was the Devolution Plan, introduced by General Pervez Musharraf in 2001. It abolished the old bureaucratic system and decentralized power. This experiment brought hope and some frustration to the district of Bahawalnagar, located in southern Punjab and comprising 118 union councils. The population was more than two million at the time. This research paper examines the structural factors that led to the failure of the devolution plan in Bahawalnagar from 2001 to 2008. The research is based on qualitative methods, with semi-structured interviews with purposively selected stakeholders who served in the elected local government of the District of Bahawalnagar between 2001 and 2008. Research identified six structural derailing factors: weak constitutional protection, fiscal dependency, and structural conflict with members of the provincial assembly, lack of training, elite capture through indirect election, and failure of citizen community participation. The results show derailing factors that were not incidental or accidental; it was a design deficiency in the Devolution Plan. The research contributes to the broader literature on decentralization in developing nations by providing on-the-ground evidence of the interaction between structural design defects and local power structures that subvert institutional change.

Keywords: Devolution Plan, Local Government, Issues, Decentralization, Bahawalnagar, Punjab, Pakistan, Governance, Fiscal autonomy, Elite Capture