Intergovernmental Profile: Pakistan

The subnational governance structure of Pakistan comprises provinces, the division/district/tehsil administration, and local governments. A division is an administrative unit positioned above a district but below a province. In total, Pakistan comprises 39 divisions, 165 districts, and 553 tehsils. Administrative units at the division, district and tehsil levels are headed by civil servants appointed by their respective provincial government. Local governments function both alongside and below the district and tehsil administrations. Although Local Government Acts differ from one province to another, their structure is similar, with elected officials both at the district and union levels (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the only exception where local government is at the tehsil level rather than the district level). Councilors are typically directly elected at the union level, and they elect their representatives to the district level.

Provinces are devolved political entities. Since the implementation of 18th amendment, they enjoy extensive autonomy and authority from the federal government. Divisions and district administrations are non-devolved (deconcentrated) institutions that are administratively and budgetarily controlled by provincial governments. There are variations in the degree of autonomy and authority of local governance institutions. While local governance institutions in Punjab and ICT are de jure specified as devolved institutions, in the absence of elected local representatives, the provincial government (and ICT administration) are still de facto in charge of political, administrative and fiscal/budget decision-making. In the three other provinces (Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan), elected local officials exist but generally lack meaningful political, administrative and fiscal/budget decision-making autonomy and authority. For instance, most local government administrators in Pakistan are actually provincial officials (Deputy Commissioners or Assistant Commissioners), handling local functions as an additional (unpaid) charge, in addition to their provincial duties. Local governments are further heavily constrained by a lack of funding, as most of these entities only generate less than 5% of their resources and primarily rely on provincial funds. Hence, Pakistan’s local governments, whether they have elected officials or not, in most cases should be considered non-devolved (deconcentrated) institutions. Selected urban local governments (e.g., Karachi and Quetta) are exceptions and may be considered hybrid local governance institutions.

The legal (de jure) and actual (de facto) functions of local governments differ from one province to another, as they are specified under their respective province’s local government acts. In general, the functions of metropolitan/municipal corporations and district councils include, among others, the planning and execution development projects, the collection certain taxes and fees, solid waste management, land use control, local environmental protection, the regulation of street and public markets, the rental of local government properties, building regulations enforcement, and the maintenance of infrastructure (roads, streets, lights, traffic signs, playgrounds). The basic functions of Union Councils in all provinces is to deliver Birth/Death/Marriage registration certificates and to provide other basic services (such as mobilizing the community for the maintenance of streets and public lights, the plantation of trees, and the removal of encroachments, maintaining sources of public water, holding local fairs and other recreational activities, and taking any other measures to promote the welfare and health of the area’s inhabitants). In practice, provincial governments are–in one way or another–involved in virtually all localized public services, regardless of the legal assignment of functions.