Governance Challenges

Governance Challenges

Confronting Pakistan

M.H. Rehman

Challenges have been the companion of human being for aeons. All societies and states have had to face challenges and it is the very response to them that sets states on course of development or deterioration, progress and prosperity or poverty. It is, in short, all about converting challenges into opportunities, weaknesses into strengths and problems into solutions.

Challenges are not static, and it is not as if new challenges do not emerge if old ones are appropriately met. Meeting challenges is a continuous, unending process. Even the most developed countries of the world face multiple challenges, although on surface everything appears calm and normal. However, they have zero or minimum backlog of unsolved challenges in contrast with ‘lagging behind’ countries that have been stuck in a ‘snakes and ladders’ development for decades.

Pakistan has had its fair share of challenges. It is a common trend to argue that the country has had to face more challenges than most nations because of the way it came into being – carved out of Indian subcontinent, comprising mostly underdeveloped regions and deprived of numerous assets it was entitled to – but there is no dearth of counter arguments to this rather trendy strand of arguments, which to an internal-locus-of-control-based assessment appears more like a pretext to cover country’s inability to cope with challenges in a befitting manner. China is a strong and most-cited example of a country that inherited a worse background. Japan and Europe also rose from ashes and ruins of World War II. Countries in the Far East, too, had humble beginnings, having hardly any natural resources to build on.

Governance has been the biggest challenge Pakistan has faced and continues to face. It is rather an overarching challenge that extends to, causes or contributes to most other challenges, if not all. Be it economic and financial crises the country finds itself hemmed in after every few years or social and societal predicaments that appear incurable; poor governance is the ultimate reason behind them all. Political instability can be, and usually is, billed as the cause of poor governance but in reality this argument is like putting the cart before the horse. It is the poor governance that leads to trust deficit and credibility loss against regimes, or institutions for that matter, and the outcome is political instability. Even military regimes, when they start losing grip over governance, follow the suit.

Governance challenges facing Pakistan have become so grave that on assuming the office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan after the July 2018 general election, Mr Imran Khan was said to have assumed the most challenging office in the world. The governance riddle has many facets, such as extremely tricky parliamentary system and situation where most energies of a regime get exhausted on managing coalitions in an attempt to maintain required majority rather than doing farsighted legislation to provide a governance structure free of loopholes, objective oversight to keep the executive in check, or meaningful deliberations/debates to truly act as the supreme source of collective wisdom. As a consequence, the country remains deprived of arguably the most vital source of input on all issues, much-needed consensus and focus on long-run fixes, and a sense of stability at the highest level that could trickle down to build confidence at multiple other levels. Rather than solving issues, parliamentary and political fraternities, at times, end up making them controversial; a loss to the country. Absolute inaction on much-needed water reservoirs is a prime example. The issue of Kalabagh Dam was made so controversial that it is unthinkable to even mention the project as an option.

It should suffice to briefly delve into proper roles assigned to each institution under the Constitution, and the points of friction. Parliament is the lawmaking body; it made the Constitution and is entitled to amend it without going out of the broader Constitutional scheme. It can also pass or amend laws on judiciary.

Judiciary is responsible for dispensing justice under the law. The Supreme Court of Pakistan is mandated to interpret the Constitution and laws. It can strike down a piece of legislation if found in violation of the contours set by the Constitution and this very mandate gives the judiciary a say in parliament’s function if such a situation arises.

Being a parliamentary system, the executive, i.e. the government, in Pakistan is drawn from the parliament, and is entitled to run affairs of the country under the laws passed by the parliament. It is mandate of the executive to do administration and management at strategic, tactical and operational levels within the parameters set by laws.

It is easy to say that all institutions are independent and need to function within their assigned roles; however, in practice, the institutions do have a say in one another’s role in some situations. It is only logical and there is nothing wrong in this arrangement as long as the ‘supra say’ is not exercised with ulterior motives. Pakistan’s case, unfortunately, has been one in which institutions have directed little effort in improving their part of the deal rather they have paid more attention to the functions of other institutions.

The judiciary has over the years not been able to dispense speedy justice, or justice for that matter. Technicalities and intricacies in the judicial system are beyond comprehension of everyone, no matter how learned and wise, other than the legal fraternity that finds them perfectly suitable to advance their interests. Delay in disposal of cases means the backlog keeps increasing all the time, overburdening the system and putting it in a vicious circle of further delays, further backlog, more frustration for justice seekers, more room for manipulators, encouragement to law violators. All this combined leads to more crimes and hence more litigation, more backlog, more delays.

Inefficiency of judicial system has far reaching impacts on all other areas of governance as well. For one, departments of police, revenue, prosecution remain overburdened with continuing litigation, leaving very little margin to attend to other issues or to bring improvements in their work. Work of a large number of government departments gets hindered and very important projects/programs remain suspended due to unending litigation. According to a media report, four beverage companies obtained stay orders against Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA)’s directions to give access to their production facilities in the year 2006. In the last 13 years, PSQCA has been rendered incapable of taking any action whatsoever against the said beverage companies. There are countable similar examples. This trend severely discourages investment too, both domestic and international. In the ease of doing business index, an effective and efficient judicial system weighs heavily and absence of the same means our country remains at the bottom of this index.

There is another aspect of this problem as well. Without fixing their own inefficiencies, inaction and long delays in its core function of dispensing justice, the Judiciary has in recent years become active in fixing the inefficiencies of the Executive. In the name of public interest, Executive’s decisions on privatization, taxation and contracting have been called into question and many of them have been declared null and void. Supreme Court stopped the privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) citing the reason that extra land of PSM worth billions had not been included/assessed in the privatization proposal, only to incur losses of hundreds of billions in the coming years due to non-privatization of PSM. Supreme Court declared contracts with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) illegal and unjust, only for IPPs to approach International Court of Justice and win the lawsuit for obtaining millions of dollars from the Government of Pakistan as damages. Supreme Court slashed the government levy on mobile phone cards with the slogan of giving general public relief, only to cause government revenues to fall short, compelling government to impose new taxes, ultimately increasing the tax burden on masses. Had the same time and energy by the Judiciary been spent on reforms in judicial system to ensure speedy and just disposal of court cases, public at large and national interests would have been served much better.

The Executive has a longstanding issue of priorities and orientation of its actions. Petty actions that have the potential of bringing cheap political mileage are always on top priority, at the expense of strategic actions that might not be very popular or visible among masses but are good for the country in the long run. Instead of bringing structural changes in the education sector as a whole, opening fancy Danish Schools is the priority. Instead of addressing the problem of inadequate public transport system on scientific basis for a permanent solution that also helps in reducing the use of private vehicles, launching shining red metro buses with scintillating bus stations unlike anywhere in the world is considered the panacea of all problems. Rather than uplifting people under poverty through steps that are not only sustainable but also add to economic activity in the country, politically motivated and much trumpeted income support programs are launched that encourage people to remain dependent on charity and aid rather than motivating them to get self-employed in gainful activities.

Positive impacts of actions are hard to come by if the actions are oriented towards particular reasons rather than merit. If changes in accountability system of the country are brought with a view to teaching opponents a lesson, it is a far cry to expect real accountability out of it. If postings/transfers of public functionaries are done on personal likes or dislikes, or to please/reward someone for a favor, the said public functionary cannot be expected to discharge their duties solely in the public interest. If – instead of maintaining government machinery as a cut to size body capable of moving sharply, ensuring good governance and economic uplift thereby creating jobs in the economy – the government becomes the biggest employer only to win political sympathies, it converts itself into an overweight sloth, unable to move, incapable of performing anything and prone to caving in under its own weight.

It is nature’s law that vacuum does not remain unfilled, other forces move to fill the void. The governance vacuum is filled by anarchy, lawlessness, ever accumulating burden of problems and increasing challengers to the authority of key institutions. First is the infringement by these three institutions in one another’s core functions. If Executive continuously fails to take prompt action when required, Judiciary gets to fill the vacuum by suo motu notices. When the civilian setup remains embroiled in skirmishes on party, political and institutional lines, the defence establishment moves in with clout on important national matters such as foreign policy, part of criminal justice system through military courts and bulk of political process through interference in elections, creating and dividing political parties etc. Hoarders and smugglers can run their businesses because the government’s taxation and law enforcement machinery is weak. Terrorists and extremists hijack the society when state fails to offer an appropriate counter narrative. People start taking law in their hands, street justice becomes popular when the state continuously fails to give sense of protection to the masses.

In a field laden with these governance failures and institutional inefficiencies grow an array of challenges. Systems for provision of civic amenities and basic necessities of life have collapsed. Public education, health, housing, security, water, sanitation and waste disposal – all are nonexistent. People have been left in the lurch, totally on their own to get education from money minting private schools, medical facilities from private clinics and hospitals at higher than commercial rates, housing from land mafia, security from private guards arranged separately for every street through contributions, water for use from tanker mafia and potable water from bottled water companies.

Solutions to challenges emerge from identification of causes, reasons and interdependencies. It is easier said than done and it will definitely take time but small yet unswerving steps towards solutions will gradually yield desired results. First and foremost, the country needs an understanding cum commitment at the highest level – the three pillars of state – to once and for all end the vicious circle of interferences and infringements; usher into an era of complementing, supplementing and creating synergies. Parliament needs to do timely legislation with far sight, leaving no loopholes that allow misuse or manipulation of laws. Judiciary shall create an assurance of prompt, objective justice – an assurance that violators of law no matter how influential will be taken to task without any delay while victims will be provided relief. The Executive will have to set its priorities and orientation right – do what’s needed for the country even if it doesn’t promise more votes immediately, put right man on the right job, provide the most conducive environment to businesses, where they are assured of returns on their investment without the fear of extortions or rent-seeking practices by any person, organization or institution. Long run prosperity will ultimately bring more votes and efficient government machinery will lead to more employment creation in the economy, obviating the need to adjust people in government jobs to reduce unemployment. Better governance will leave little or no room for other actors to fill the void and hence there will be more stability, triggering more economic activity, higher levels of prosperity.

It is time the country chalked out objective plans for short, medium and long terms in all spheres of governance and stuck to those plans. There has to be a set direction, the right direction. There has to be action, coordinated and sustained action. There have to be solutions, well thought out and absolutely objective solutions. There has to be belief, self-belief, that we can…and we must!

The writer is a Fulbright alumnus, presently serving as

Deputy Secretary in the Federal Government.