The local governments were turfed out by the present government with a substantial portion of their tenure unexpired. While the local bodies have been restored, and the section of the local government law under which they had been dissolved by the provincial government struck down, the Punjab government is not yet off the hook, and the Chief Secretary, has been threatened with imprisonment by the Supreme Court. The reason is that while the local bodies have been restored, they have been given no development funds.
The real crux of the matter seems to have been reached. Local bodies have development funds at their disposal, and thus councilors have been known to take payments from contractors who want their bills approved. The power over contractors goes to the provincial government when it dissolves a local council. Also, MPAs and MNAs resent the councils. While the Eighteenth Amendment removed the federal government from these councils, it did not provide for the funding of these councils, which are funded largely by the provincial governments.
On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Imran Khan praised the local councils highly, but once in power did not like the Punjab councils, which were dominated by the PML(N). His MNAs and MPAs also did not like these councils. Thus they were dissolved, and the present resistance to them built up. It did not help that the Minister in charge, Senior Minister Aleem Khan, had to resign because he was facing NAB charges, and was only recently reinstated.
The only way out is for the federal government to bring all the parties together and evolve a consensus on local governments, which will includes both a mechanism to secure their funding, and one to ensure that their tenure is not interrupted. After a number of elections, local governments will not just be nurseries of democracy, as they are supposed to be, but they will also be what they are supposed to be: a little boring.
