Equitable development in Pakistan requires the strengthening of its institutions
https://arab.news/8t8kn
Economic indicators in Pakistan are improving and there is renewed hope of increasing GDP growth and wealth creation. However, the financial performance is unlikely to translate into the alleviation of poverty unless the previous three decades of institutional decay are reversed. The erosion in credibility of the governance framework has constrained successive governments’ capacity to meaningfully improve the welfare of its citizenry. This gives rise to the grievance that the public has been excluded to its detriment from the policy and decision-making process.
The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), comprising legal, political and economic institutions, show that Pakistan’s institutional quality not only ranks near the bottom among 200 countries and territories, but has also steadily deteriorated over the last few decades. The heavy price the country paid for its participation in the ‘War on Terror’ is reflected in the fact that Pakistan’s percentile ranking sank from 14.9 in 1998 to 2.9 in 2018 on the dimension measuring stability and absence of violence/ terrorism.
Similarly, regarding perceptions of the quality of public/civil services and the credibility of the government’s commitment to the formulation and implementation of suitable policies, its percentile ranking deteriorated from 37.3 to 26.9 over the same period. With respect to perceptions of the extent to which Pakistanis are able to participate in selecting their government and freely voice their opinion, the country’s percentile ranking fell from 33.3 to 26.6.
While the country’s position remained static with regards to regulatory quality and rule of law, it continues to be in the bottom third in the comity of nations, and lags behind the South Asian average. The overall picture presented by WGI for Pakistan is bleak with the clear inference of weak institutional capacity to regulate and direct economic and social interactions.
While the country’s position remained static with regards to regulatory quality and rule of law, it continues to be in the bottom third in the comity of nations, and lags behind the South Asian average.
Javed Hassan
This is reflected in societal codes of conduct and behavioral norms that imply that there is insufficient mutual trust or respect between the state and its citizens, a trust that is necessary for strengthening institutions. Not only has the state failed to entrench respect for the law and observance of rules, but both formal and informal institutions have been misused by the élite for its own benefits rather than ensuring greater levels of welfare.
To gain acceptance among the electorate, institutions need to be better integrated with informal norms of behavior, such as customs, beliefs, and traditions. The formal rules by which the state governs and implements policies need to be indigenized and demonstrably be seen as serving the interests of the public. In effect, the state apparatus must be inclusive with an institutionalized decision-making process whose functions and objectives are relevant to the electorate.
In addition, there have to be management incentives and controls in place, especially for state-controlled utilities, in order for public services and goods to be provided equitably. Effective functioning of the institutions with community involvement will not only help ameliorate past grievances, but also gradually build the necessary level of confidence in formal rules with the public to elicit their support for compliance through their adoption as part of the cultural norm.
As committed by the present government, the vulnerability of the poor to actual and perceived unfairness of the criminal justice and administration system has to be removed. Harassment by police and local officials responsible for licensing and regulating economic activities of small traders to extract rent symbolizes exploitation by state functionaries. Rather than being impartial executors of state policies, their misuse of authority has often made it difficult for the informal sector to function effectively. Reform of the police force is long overdue and district-level administrations need to transform from being seen as instruments of coercion to trusted providers of protection and service.
In the near term, holding local council elections and setting up functional local bodies will considerably push forward this process. The decentralization of power and resources from the federal and province levels should help make each local administration and the police answerable to an elected district chief executive. By being directly accountable to the community, attitudes within law enforcement and public service administrations will also become more sensitive to public exigencies.
The local bodies must be assisted by transferring funds to them from upper tiers of the government, but they must also be encouraged to rely on self-generated revenues to meet expenditures. While devolution will provide an opportunity for local accountability of government and achieve efficiencies in the way the services are delivered, without fiscal decentralization its impact will be limited.
Empowering local bodies will be a major step forward in ensuring participatory institutional structures, which set priorities that are directly responsive to the requirements of the community. It should be one of many policy actions aimed at making the state functions efficient to achieve sustainable growth and reduction in levels of inequality.
*Javed Hassan has worked in senior executive positions both in the profit and non-profit sector in Pakistan and internationally. He’s an investment banker by training.
Twitter: @javedhassan
