If an elected individual doesn’t meet with the ordinary people who elected him or her, then there is no democracy. Democracy is all about by the people, for the people, and of the people. People’s involvement is the cornerstone of any democratic system. Minus people from democracy, and you are left with nothing.
An elected individual needs to interact with the people all the time. He needs to visit the center of his town and hold the meetings with the members of the pubic and listen to them. In this localized public short meetings the elected representative of the people must listen to what his or her constituents have to say, answer questions and give a rundown of what they are working on and what’s going on in the Islamabad or Lahore or Karachi or Peshawar or Quetta.
Elections of provincial and federal assemblies elect law makers. It’s only the local government elections on the city, town, district, tehsil and ward level that enable public to ask questions from the government. It’s the grass root democracy, we are talking about here. That is the only way to reap the fruits of the democracy. Somehow, the PML-N, PTI, and PPP governments have managed to defy the Supreme Court orders about the local government elections. They are terrified of these elections as they are scared of each other. PML-N dreads that PTI might win in Punjab, PTI is scared of JUI-F and PMLN in KPK, and PPP is scared of MQM in Sindh and so on. One wishes that the people of Pakistan get the local government as soon as possible.