Politics & Power Quote by Imran Khan

In Pakistan’s political ecosystem, “decentralisation” is never a neutral technocratic tweak; it’s a power grab dressed as reform. When Imran Khan calls for “a good local government system,” he’s pitching an idea that sounds commonsense because it’s built on a daily grievance: the state feels distant, predatory, and slow. Local roads don’t get fixed, sanitation collapses, policing is arbitrary, and people experience “governance” as a favor dispensed by whoever has access. The line works because it promises something voters can picture: decision-making closer to their street than to Islamabad.

The subtext is sharper. Decentralisation is also a way to weaken entrenched provincial and district elites who thrive on patronage and control. In Pakistan, mainstream parties often treat local bodies as optional: they empower them when convenient, suspend them when they become rivals. So Khan’s framing doubles as an indictment of the status quo and a justification for bypassing it. It suggests the center can “clean up” politics by rerouting authority downward, even though decentralisation requires the center and provinces to surrender real levers: money, policing, land, and hiring.

Context matters: after 18th Amendment devolution strengthened provinces, the next fight became whether power stops at the provincial capital or reaches cities and villages. Khan’s insistence signals a modernizing impulse, but also a political calculus: create elected local tiers that can become a parallel base of legitimacy, especially when provincial governments are controlled by opponents. The promise is proximity. The risk is another layer of power without autonomy.