Pakistan Research Repository


Title of Thesis The Prospects of New Local Government System. A case study of District Government Dera Ismail Khan
Author(s) Najeebullah Khan
Institute/University/Department Details Gomal University of Dera Ismail Khan
Session 2009
Subject Management Studies
Number of Pages 202
Keywords (Extracted from title, table of contents and abstract of thesis) ground-realities, popular participation, government intervention
Abstract The shift from an existing local government system to a new one in itself is an indication of weaknesses in the replaced system. Thus, the new LGO 2001 is an effort to depart from the old platform to a new one with an assumption that the new system has such structural and functional features, which will not only wipeout the legacy problems but also add mundane values to the local government system in Pakistan. Prima facie, the intentions of new system look positive, as new structures have been introduced thereby distributing the resources and authorities down to the grass root levels with better chances of good service delivery to the general public. However, it is a pre-requisite to have a possible system best in documents; it is more important and challenging to translate the theoretical system into reality. The new system may be matchless in contents but this is not the guarantee of successful implementation. The objective of this research is to study the ground-realities of the system by gathering empirical facts and figures from real actors of the local government. The questionnaire has been applied to read the situation from all possible dimensions. To substantiate the primary data, the official record has been analyzed. The data analyses reveal several findings, which can be used as yardsticks for the prospects of new system in our country. Although, it might be taken more natural if general public is giving lower scores on the performance of new system than the councilors and government servants however, extreme attitudes are alarming. The most striking finding of the study is that there is a lack of understanding of the system itself by all the users, which is making the system-performance-evaluation more ambiguous, complicated and thus, subject to a variety of interpretations. The regression analyses expose other variables to determine the system prospects however, the dominant beta-score of ‘popular participation’ and ‘government intervention’ 9 conveys a different message. That is, efforts should be made to increase participation but more importantly a visible mechanism must be put in place to stop government intervention. It is however, worth mentioning that the public is optimistic about the new system and they are enthusiastic about its future provided, all the publicly noticed weaknesses and problems of the new system are taken up instantly and uprooted in time.


Download Full Thesis				1310 KB

S. No.	Chapter	Title of the Chapters	Page	Size (KB)

1	1	Introduction	14	35 KB
	1.1	Background	14
	1.2	Problem statement	17
	1.3	Objectives of the study	18
	1.4	Importance of the study	18
	1.5	Research Hypotheses	19
	1.6	Organization of the thesis	20

2	2	Literature Review	22	96 KB
	2.1	Global Perspectives	22
	2.2	National Perspectives	33
	2.3	Extracted variables	39
	2.4	Theoretical Framework	40
	2.5	Discussion	41

3	3	Research Design	44	34 KB
	3.1	Approach	44
	3.2	Populatio	44
	3.3	Sample & Sampling Procedure	45
	3.4	Data Collection Methods	46
	3.5	Data Analysis Tools	46
	3.6	Operationalization of the Concepts	47
	3.7	The Case Study	48

4	4	Local Government Systems in Pakistan	50	53 KB
	4.1	Introduction	50
	4.2	Pre- Independence Period	50
	4.3	Post- Independence Period	51
	4.4	Local Government 1958-69	52
	4.5	Local Governments 1972-77	55
	4.6	Local government 1979-84	56
	4.7	Local Government 1985-1998	59
	4.8	Local government 1999-onward	60
	4.9	Discussion	60

5	5	New Local Govt. System	62	262 KB
	5.1	Introduction	62
	5.2	Changes introduced by the new system	63
	5.3	Salient Features of the New System	76
	5.4	Problems Addressed	79
	5.5	Challenges in Addressing the Problems	80
	5.6	Discussion	84

6	6	Data Analysis & Interpretation	86	397 KB
	6.1	Introduction	86
	6.2	Checking the Reliability of measure: Cronbach’s Alpha	86
	6.3	Descriptive Statistics: Cross Tabulations of Respondents’ Profile	87
	6.4	Description of Research Variables	90
	6.5	Inferential Statistics: Pearson Correlation	91
	6.6	Hypotheses Testing	92

7	7	General Discussion	114	58 KB
	7.1	Popular participation	114
	7.2	Accountability and transparency	116
	7.3	Public service delivery	118
	7.4	Good Governance	120
	7.10	Prospects of the system	123

8	8	Summary and Conclusions	127	71 KB
	8.1	Summary of the Findings	127
	8.2	Conclusions	132
	8.3	Recommendations	134
	8.4	Implications	141

		Bibliography	144	572 KB

		Appendices	163	361 KB