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The institutions of Pakistan

The new government’s task is indeed humongous, demanding a herculean task force to manage the dwindling state of economy and multiple state governance issues. While the new government is expected to focus straight away on the burning issue of economy, it must not lose sight of what has brought the nation to this pass. It’s not just the financial numbers, which each successive government attempts to fix through the IMF and other lenders, the infection is far more complex than what it appears to be. It’s the state governance which is on a systematic declining mode for the last six decades.

On the subject of the sanctity of institutions of Pakistan, one has to go back into the history of the country to grasp what has gone wrong in all these past years.

Upon its birth in 1947, Pakistan acquired an industrial base limited to two cement mills, a few ginning & flour mills, an electricity network limited to a few large cities, a well functional railway network and an efficient irrigation system, an effective and professional executive, armed forces and judiciary cadre for the governance of the state under the ambit of federal and provincial legislators and local council system.

The decade of 1950s witnessed the twilight period of Pakistan’s history when the institutions of legislators, executives and judiciary worked in harmony in accordance with their assigned roles and in the process delivered to the nation amazing results. It was this period when landmark entities like PIA, Pakistan Industrial Development Cooperation (PIDC), Wapda and Pakistan Council of Scientific Research (PCSIR) were established which ushered in an era of industrialization, oil and gas exploration, industrial and agriculture research, revolutionary public mobility with trains and planes operating by the clock.

It was in late 50s when things took a nosedive with frequent change of Prime Ministers and governments and cracks surfacing in the legislature, executive and judiciary cadre of the state, making room for the military intervention. True sanctity of institutions has not returned since the late 1950s.

The 1958 to 2008 period witnessed 30 years of state governance by military regimes and 20 years by the political governments. In this time-frame, there were periods when Pakistan excelled extremely well on the economic front. For example, it was in the decade of 60s when the country achieved unparalleled economic excellence primarily on account of a largely talent and merit-based executive cadre of the state. The 2008 to 2018 decade witnessed acceleration in the decline of state governance and weakening of state institutions.

A stable democracy is all about stable institutions. When institutions weaken so does the democracy as gaps and chaos prompts and justifies encroachments by other institutions of the state. The constitution of Pakistan stipulates the independence of all the three institutions of Pakistan-each entrusted with its sphere of responsibility with the mandate to act in the best national interest.

Of the three institutions of Pakistan, the executive cadre has weakened the most. The once professional and independent cadre of the civil service of Pakistan, which is the backbone of the state machinery and entrusted with the mandate to manage the affairs of the state in the best interests of its people and independent of political influence, over the years, has succumbed to political influence, thereby severely undermining the economic and social growth of Pakistan. The gaps in the civil service cadre prompted and in some cases compelled one particular institution of the nation to step out of its constitutional role.

The legislators of provincial assemblies have by and large undermined the mandate and financial means of the legislators of local bodies, subjecting citizens, particularly have-nots, to miseries in terms of lack of civic amenities. The federal legislators have undermined the mandate of the state bureaucracy by assuming the role of directly managing the state affairs instead of playing the role of policymakers and public representatives, thereby making the bureaucracy subservient to political dictates and loyalties and creating a vicious circle of vested interests. In return, the federal ministries have usurped the independence of state regulators by forfeiting their right to be independent as enshrined in the constitution. The same goes for the state business enterprises by placing them under the administrative control of the ministries, rendering them ineffective and loss-making enterprises.

Democracy in totality is no solution for emerging nations in Asia in particular. Democracy, Autocracy & Meritocracy constitute a winning combination. The great examples of success in this model of state governance are Malaysia, Singapore and China. A winning State Governance is a combination of Democracy, Autocracy and Meritocracy. Setting the state institutions right is setting the state right. This constitutes the most difficult but inevitable task for the PTI government to carry out in order to achieve and sustain the vision of “new” Pakistan.

(The writer is former President of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018

Farhat Ali, "The institutions of Pakistan," Business Recorder. 2018-08-04.
Keywords: Education , Governance issues , Agriculture-Research , Democracy , Pakistan , PIDC , PCSIR