Governing through tickers

The writer is former executive editor of The News and a senior journalist with Geo TV.
Is Pakistan really an impossible country to govern? Apparently it is. Talk to anyone in the federal and provincial governments and all you hear is a long, agonising lament. In summary form the case that is built speaks of the system’s slowness, bureaucratic hurdles, a breathtaking array of issues that require resolution, an onslaught of the new challenges that inundate the policy-making tables leaving no room for reflection and planning.
In addition to this litany of complaints from the power-wielders you are most likely to be treated to anecdotal accounts of how well-directed initiatives are hobbled by mean power-jockeys and turf-conscious, ever-conspiring colleagues.
The narrative is familiar. It has driven the national conversation for decades. In the age of pressing demands, like the one we are living in today, this refrain is heard more frequently. The Nawaz Sharif government is becoming truly good at it. Every time a finger points to a mess-up the wailing song starts playing out loud. Officials and political representatives begin their defence by listing hurdles in the path of governance before moving onto ticking their heroics. Lone against Rome. Davids taking on Goliaths. Captains courageous keeping rickety ships steady in stormy waters.
What you will not hear is admission of the core fact that governments have only one function to perform – to govern – and those that are unable to deliver on this count need accountability not sympathy. The more serious the omissions, the harsher the accountability.
This sympathy (or sympathetic view) that the government demands is least deserved also because the science of governance and management has been made easy by an incredible volume of information that is now available with respect to all matters.
Pakistan, it can be safely said, is an over-analysed country. There is little need for research or even to search. Problems are identified. Solutions are proposed. The collective wisdom of successful nations all around the world offer living examples of fast turn-arounds of fortunes, and more significantly, the ways to do it. All that needs to be done is to replicate after modifications.
What sort of a special genius, for instance, is required to streamline institutions like the police, or lower judiciary, or to run airports, hospitals, public schools, basic health units, colleges, universities, bus terminals, shipping ports, steel mills, airlines, roads, markets, water courses, agriculture lands? Or to arrange for garbage to be picked up or trees to be planted, and crime gangs to be uprooted? For thousands of years till today there are millions of pointers on the chart of history that be called upon to address every conceivable challenge that confront state and society.
Resources cannot be a problem. The government’s own statements say that the economy is doing very well. At any rate the spendthrift ways money is doled out on favourite projects negates the thesis of cash shortage.
Surely, experience and expertise cannot be an issue. The Sharifs have been in and out of power for almost three dozen years. That’s a lot of years. Besides we were told before the last elections that they had a dream team where energy, youth, and wisdom blended in an amazing mix. Six months is what they asked to turn around Pakistan. It has been much longer than that. No turn seem to be around the corner. Yes round and round and round is what we see by a team that comprises the prime minister plus three plus one. Dar-Nisar-Asif and Shahbaz. They are everywhere as opposed to their magic that requires special effort to be seen.
And, of course, the reason for ineffective governance cannot be the state’s capacity. The state infrastructure has grown much more than the public services it delivers. A prime example is the prime minister secretariat. Not long ago there were just two senior bureaucrats who managed the prime minister’s time and work-load. Later on they mushroomed. In their dozens they ran their own bloated fiefs.
If deployed purposefully this lashkar that occupied the secretariat could produce outputs of industrious proportions instead of planning evening walks to reduce the fat bulge acquired through over-consumption of resources. Yet it was left to grow and eventually to be cut down considerably in the past two years. It is now the prime minister’s office. But even at its reduced size it remains a parallel powerhouse to which the prime minister’s basic responsibilities are outsourced and from where the country is governed through unaccountable power. The more relevant parts of the system such as the Cabinet Division have been shoved to the margins as summaries pile up causing inordinate delays.
The truly heart-breaking thing about dysfunctional governance in the country is that it does not have to be this way. As a reader pointed out in his feedback to my earlier article:
“I can see where and what is the matter in implementing policies and taking concrete action to decisive conclusions. The state is the biggest corporate entity in itself and needs to be governed as a corporate entity with clear goals, strategies, and monitoring followed by accountability of individuals if the goals have not been met. Weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews have to be undertaken to ensure that goals are being met. This needs a meticulous preparation when goals are framed and requires couple of initial meetings to weed out superfluous stuff.
“This is followed by microcosm of the goals into weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual goals. Deviation from the task in hand is identified in weekly (or daily) meetings which can take 8 to 10 hours where every minister would have to explain as to why he is following below the targets assigned. Can you imagine the momentum it would create in day-to day-work in all the ministries?”
We don’t have to imagine. We can see it all around us. The list of countries that have jumped up on the index of governance right in front of eyes purely by improving management and efficiently levels at the top is long. Just as many and more countries have fallen below par on account of pathetic management. The World Competitiveness Report 2014-15 makes this point abundantly clear when it ranks different countries on multiple criteria.
Pakistan, which fell two points – from 124 to 126, scores poorly on all indicators that are directly connected with tighter, efficient and hands-on management matters.
As one news report points out: “Other regulatory bodies have also shown weak governance indicators, losing ranks to other emerging markets. The Accountant General of Pakistan, for instance, has gone from the rank of 90 in the last year to 117 in 2015 on the strength of accounting and reporting. Similarly, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), which had seen great success over the last few years, proved to be weaker as it ranked 93 compared to 71 in 2014 among 140 regulators of security exchanges globally. Among South Asian nations, India led the way at 55, improving by 16 points. Sri Lanka (68) also ranked higher than Pakistan.”
Those who harbour doubts about calamitous governance should pay a two-hour visit to the pompously-named Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, or a Basic Health Unit anywhere in Pakistan. Or just travel inland on private transport for a few days. Or read the Nepra report on the energy sector – available on the Nepra website. And if that does not hold enough evidence then just visit any graveyard – yes graveyard – to know how our governance systems treats the dead – even worse than the living.
Other than the privileged islands well-kept for the elite to visit and benefit from, the whole of the country (provincial governments are also afflicted with the same disease) is a large-scale governance failure.
It will stay so for as long as decision-making remains a patchwork of reactions, and management a part-time affair for the mandated government. Just as you cannot run defence policy on Twitter, you cannot run the country through television tickers. (There is a reason why the government’s media cell is the most active part of the ruling system. Feel-good tickers on screens stand in for good governance.)
Only if the rulers could bring the same kind of wisdom and sagacity to their governance as they show in running their personal businesses and treasuries, real estates and homes, this country could turn around in a decade. But perhaps that is asking for too much.
Email: syedtalathussain@gmail.com
Twitter: @TalatHussain12