Governance reform

Pakistan is a resourceful country and has immense potential for growth, progress and prosperity. Our people are diligent, capable and ingenious.

We have a natural resource base richer and more diversified than many developed countries. Modern institutional structures also exist to generate and sustain rapid economic development.

What is amiss, however, is the quality of governance so essential to harness national resources for improving the lot of the people. It is nothing short of a tragedy that such a resourceful country has remained under-developed for want of good governance and its potential for public welfare has not been fully exploited.

Unfortunately, the crisis of governance facing the country has festered for too long and a policy of drift is creating intractable complications. Unless the fault-lines are rectified and meaningful corrective action taken, the country may drift into chaos and anarchy, thus imperilling national unity and integrity. There is, therefore, an urgent need for reform to roll back the process of decline and set in motion a virtuous cycle to reinforce the linkages between state and society

It is a pity that the various fora set up by the government to steer the process of governance reform in the country have fiddled with peripheral issues and turned the blind eye of Nelson to core questions of governance. There are vital issues pertaining to rule of law, revival of public institutions, restraining arbitrary exercise of power and combating endemic corruption that are crucial to creating an enabling environment in which public and private sectors can act in synergy for the development of the country and for providing a better life to the people.

Given the chronic nature of the crisis facing us, we must realize that there are no shortcuts to change, nor any facile solutions to complex problems. The process of reform is long and tedious; strategy formulation requires careful thought and intellectual impetus; and implementation may not be possible without sacrifice and public support. In my view, undertaking credible governance reform requires the following underpinnings.

One, there is a need to evolve a national consensus on sensitive and delicate issues through broad-based debate and discussion. Results cannot be achieved even with the best of intentions and ingenuity unless stakeholders are imbued with a genuine sense of ownership and participation. Pakistani society shows signs of strain and polarization incited by ethnic, social and political cleavages. For meaningful reform to take hold, it is essential to build bridges of communication, dispel mistrust and prejudice, and establish credibility and fair play.

We learn from recent history that only consensus and common objectives can keep a people united and make them strive for collective goals. What happened in the former Soviet Union and other Central and East European states shows that unity imposed by force is artificial and melts down in the cauldron of dissent, requiring reconstruction of crumbled polities. Broad consensus on national issues and objectives can only be built under a truly representative government established by the writ of the people.

Two, structural changes in administrative institutions may be necessary but are not a sufficient condition of improved governance. What is of paramount importance is the creation of an enabling environment in which public-sector institutions and private-sector enterprises can perform optimally to establish rule of law and accelerate social and economic development.

While venturing into structural reform, it needs to be carefully determined whether the existing institutions have outlived their utility or are just malfunctioning due to distortions and external manipulation which, if removed, could put them back on the rails. The temptation to throw away the baby with the bathwater and to put on a new face may be too strong but it should be resisted to avoid a vacuum which would inevitably be created by the disuse of existing structures and the effective creation of new ones. The country may not be able to slug through such an interregnum unscathed.

Three, the process of reform will be resisted by vested interests. In order to ensure successful implementation, it is essential that the organs of the state do not identify themselves with various interest groups and act independently in the larger public interest. Only an autonomous state – a state that can avoid capture by vested interests – can implement meaningful reform.

Last, but not the least, reforms should come not as ad-hoc, piecemeal measures, but as building blocks of a comprehensive, long-term strategy, addressing a whole set of issues relating to governance – rule of law, revival of institutions, efficient management of public resources, creation of an enabling environment for private sector activity, human resource management, and respect for fundamental human rights. This is essential to ensure consistency, continuity, and sustainability

The author is a former cabinet secretary.

Email: samisaeed7@hotmail.com