Good governance in Pakistan, issues and remedial measures Since from the inception of human civilization and evolution of departmentalization of human primary and secondary activities, human strived hard to develop efficient methods to handle the daily affairs of state with the optimization of equitable distribution of social and economic resources to reduce the gap between have and haven’t. This constant meditation resulted into the conceptualization of Good and Bad governance. Governance is generally deals with exercise of political, social and administrative authority in public and private sectors at all the level in order to improve the way of life of mass. Good governance simplify the decision making process, clarify the authority and ensure that all the organizations and individuals are accountable for their actions and decision. In the historical perspective, about 400 BC before, Kautilya an Indian ruler at time tried to explain the governance as the basic duty of government to provide justice, just and transparent distributary system and refrain from autocratic way of government. Later on Islam presented the ideal system of government based the justice, accountability, obligation of right and wrong, sense of responsibility, rule of law and earnest desire for the social and economic uplift of depressed and isolated fragments of society. As Allah Almighy has mentions the obligations imposed upon Muslim ruler: “Those who given land established the Sala, gives the Zakat and enjoin what is right Forbids what is wrong.” (22:41) In this verse Allah Almighty clearly has assigned the basic duties of the ruler whom most important task is to develop a society where the sense of wrong and right is prevalent and where each and every individual is free to perform his basic religious rituals without any fear of suppression. So Governance in Islam depicts the strict observance of right and wrong and availability of justice. What is good governance? Good governance is generally is the good relation between government and citizen it serves. World Bank defines the good governance like this: Good governance refers the manner in which public officials and institutions acquire and exercise the authority to shape the public policy and provide good and services. Government is the setup of different organs such as executive, legislator, judiciary and the effective coordination between these organs is the utmost importance to run the state affairs smoothly. Good governance ensure that all of these institutions are working within their constitutional mandate and without any interference in one another affairs. Good governance covers three importance spheres: In the political sphere good governance deals with the devolution of power and grass roots participation of mass to echo their voice in legislation and to ensure the eradication of feudalism and dictatorship. In economic sphere good governance deals with equitable distribution of social and economic resources by incorporating the different shades of opinions expressed by different segments of society in decision making process which directly or indirectly affect the common man. In the social sphere good governance deals with development of society where civil society can flourish. Where people are inculcated about their rights and they have clear understanding of importance of education, woman empowerment and their rights and duties. Good governance in Pakistan: The realization of the dream of Good governance remained an uphill task in Pakistan. Nepotism, favoritism, bribery and corruption have plagued our current system. It is well known affect that our Governments before Ayub era and before Mushrif era had been dissolved due to charges of nepotism and corruption. Pakistan is facing myriads of external and internal challenges be it terrorism, wide spread proliferation of corruption or security threat due to foreign disturbance in form of drones attack or daily skirmished over LoC by Indian aggression. All of these directly or indirectly affecting the governance of our governments. The causes of failures of Government to deliver be it civilian or military stemmed from various reasons some of them discuss below. Sustained and well matured democratic way of government is highly efficient to cultivate the seeds of good governance due to accountability and apprehension of rejection in election if the governments do not act accordingly the expectation of mass. In Pakistan military has shown perennial lust of power and self-made perception of sole guardian of national interest has inspired the Top brass to step in power corridor with glittering promise of good governance, elimination of corruption, poverty alleviation but this instability has affected negatively on our system. People select their political leaders to serve and protect their rights, but the rulers as soon as enters power corridor assumed all the power in their hands and act like autocrat. They altogether neglect the basic aspirations of people and started nepotism and favoritism. If head has rotten, it is right to assume that whole body will ultimately decompose. Same is case with the way of governance. The evils of political elite percolate down to the clerical staff and it becomes difficult to get a satisfactory performance with such system. Abuse of power is another root cause of bad governance in Pakistan where the ambiguity in constitutional mandate of different state institutes create fuss and constant interference in the affairs of different institutes create a hindrance to deliver the system properly. For example our X CJP triggered a war between legislator and judiciary which ultimately translated into very bad performance of PPP led coalition governed with stunted GDP growth and rapid decline in human development index. Economic condition is also a major reason of bad governance because bankrupt government has nothing to deliver with mass, obviously this result into heavy taxation and social anarchy in country which hinders the system to have access to public. Law and order situation is contributing in bad governance of Pakistani Government because in case of emergency Government has forced to use armed forces to restore the law and order situation. This situation creates a circumstance where it become impossible for civil servants to act and also developmental projects for the benevolent of public are to be curtained.in addition to this, the excessive use of developmental budget for the security reasons reduced the capacity of government to launch any project of social security and human development. Lack of proper check and balance system of government is a major cause of bad governance because exception of accountability creates the sense of liberty from all sort of constitutional obligations and rulers began to act like an emperor. For example in Pakistan, PM enjoys exception during his tenure, this depicts that he has liberty to do whatever he likes. In addition to this, highly recessive and inactive role played by NAB, FIR, competition commission for Pakistan, and national and provincial ombudsmen has motivated the politicians, officials, military and civil elite to act freely without any fear of accountability. Lack of continuity in the developmental project of successive government is also serious issue because all the development projects of previously government are cancelled altogether a as new government steps in the power corridor. This result into wastage of precious national and provincial economic and human resources. Red tapism and undue delay in the official proceeding of projects causes irritating situation for any honest and just official who wants to deliver competently moreover bribery, nepotism and favoritism has seriously damaged the capacity of government machinery to fulfill the aspiration of common man. Ignorance of common man and unawareness about the rights of individual in industrial and democratic society is another social cause of bad governance in Pakistan because people do not know differences between the good governance and bad governance. Highly subjugated attitude before the civil servants expressed by common man is inherited from pre partition era. British developed the government machinery in order to sustain their rule over sub-continent. So they intentionally brainwashed their civil servants to have a distance from common man in order to cultivate the fear of rulers among mass. This tradition is still continue in our government machinery which is the main obstacle in the way of recognition of individual’s rights and subsequently raising the voice for their due and established rights. Political parties, defective, immature and corrupt political setup is the hurdle to develop a systems based upon the consensus of human welfare. Political parties nourish their ideology from various grounds ranging from sectarianism, nationalism, linguistic prejudices etc and have caused extreme polarization of society which gives rise to social and economic anarchy which is no doubt injurious for good governance. Remedial measures: All of these reasons demand urgency to eradicate the obstacles and cultivate the sense of confidence among the mass in the government machinery, how can this milestone be achieved? Below mentioned steps are the critical to improve the governance. Development of stable political set up and effective legislation to check the military intervention in state affairs is the utmost importance to improve the livelihood of common man. In this regard development of consensus over which form of government suit to us must be reached now, given the pluralist nature of our society parliamentary democracy is best suited to us, In order to make parliament the true representative of mass, there is need to bring openness through extensive media coverage, transparency through accountability and right of information and maximum participation of isolated and depressed segments of society in mainstream politics. This step ensures the incorporation of different shades of faith and opinion in decision making process to distribute economic and social resources equitably across the society. Devolution of power is important tool to bring about good governance in Pakistan, because the authoritative attitude will never endow the nation the true fruits of good governance. In this regard local bodies system is best way to devolve the power down to the common man. Local bodies system can be improved through allocating the developmental budget only to the local bodies and confining the MPA’s and MNA’s role within the legislation process. This will ensure the solution of local problems at local level and government machinery will enjoy enough time and resources to concentrate on the national issues and mega project be it construction of dam to reduce shortfall of power supply or development of unanimous national embodiment of foreign policy. Introduction of reforms in judiciary and executive is the crying need of time, in this connection mitigating corruption within courts, education of laws through extensive media campaign and appointment of competent and honest judges through strict scrutiny will ensure the improvement in the judiciary and consequently availability of cheap and quick justice tranquilize the common man. At the same time basic and long term introduction of reforms in executive especially in police is also need of hour because it is the police which has to deliver the result of national progress directly to the mass and also tackle the security threats to maintain law and order. Incorporation of competent police officers in department through strict criteria, training of police officials to equip them with counter terrorism strategies, bringing about the accountability of police elites and lower staff and introduction of basic changes in traditional police system by computerizing the process of filing a case and registering FIR will ultimately impact positively on the efficiency of our police to deliver the fruits of good governance to the mass. Continuity of development projects of successive governments must be ensured through legislation because discontinuity leads towards the excessive loss of national resources, moreover changing the behaviors of bureaucrats, maximum participation of woman, minorities and other suppressed segments of society are also importance to reap the true fruits of good governance. Conclusion: Good governance is the utmost importance for any society. History tells us that all the nations who maintained good governance while managing the state affairs rose to the height of success and Destiney of nation who ignored the effective and welfare oriented governance characterized with grave humiliation. Good governance inculcates the confidence of mass in government and cultivate the patriotism among mass. Good governance is the effective way to stop brain drain and development of society where civil society may prosper with absolute freedom of speech, religious liberties, minority protection. Bad governance stemmed from nepotism, ineffective political set up, authoritarian way of government, abuse of power, lack of check and balance, discontinuity of developmental projects, ignorance and proud attitude of civil bureaucrat and military intervention. This can be solved through clearing the ambiguity in constitutional domain of institutes, devolution of power, effective accountability, reforms in judiciary, legislator and executive and ensuring the continuity of developmental projects.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 10:31:36 +0000
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