'The Politics of The Misgoverned': Book by ex-IGP attempts to give way forward to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A former Inspector General of Police, Azhar Hassan Nadeem, in his latest book, has said, “Pakistan requires a complete overhaul of its governance structure and methodology in conjunction with a thorough institutional reinvigoration for sustainable and inclusive development of its political economy.”

In the light of his lifelong experience of working in Pakistan as a police officer, former Inspector General of Police Azhar Hassan Nadeem has pointed out the challenges and given solutions to some of the key governance issues faced by the country in his book 'Pakistan: The Politics of the Misgoverned'. The book also attempts to give a way forward to Pakistan for coming out of the crisis in different governance related challenges.

In his book, Azhar Hassan Nadeem has briefly touched upon the governance issues, including rule of law, criminal justice system, political parties, army and politics, local government, civil society, terrorism and socio economic scenario in Pakistan through 10 different chapters, which also include a recommended way forward by the retired police officer.

The book contains an in-depth discussion on the structural challenges, being faced by Pakistan. Azhar Nadeem, who retired in 2008 and later served as a member of the Punjab Public Service Commission between 2008 to 2011, has extensively used his exposure and the lessons he learnt in this book.

The retired officer believes “Pakistan’s sociological, political and economic scene has been polluted by the existence of extractive institutions and the failure of the state to evolve an inclusive institutional set-up, notwithstanding the fact that the number of people getting opportunities for upward mobility did increase in the recent past."

The author of the book has refrained touching in detail on the role of political parties, however, he has mentioned some historic events mentioning the role of political parties. He has also discussed the troubled civil-military relations, particularly the era between 2016 to 2019.

In the said section of the book, the author has given some details of the relations between the-then Nawaz Sharif led PML-N government and the-then Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif.

Azhar Hassan Nadeem has also criticised the role of military bureaucracy. However, he is also critical of the absence of merit based promotions in the political parties from juniors to top echelons, which results in dynasties and absence of debates on vital issues.

He has also mentioned that the political parties do not have think tanks to find the solutions to problems like sustainable growth, social development, housing health and education. The book also demands that the country’s religious-based identity needs to be done away and the basis of our nation state should be common residence of same geographical identity.

The author thinks that the vision of founding father of Pakistan was not a narrowminded vision; he believed in equality and did not want any discrimination among the citizens of this country on the basis of religion, color or cast.

The author thinks that the discriminatory application of law is one of the key reasons that the development policies can’t bring result in any country, thus, he demands an equal application of law at all levels. In his 10 chapter book, Azhar Hassan Nadeem has discussed in detail the role of different institutions, saying that institutions are not making inclusive policies, which is a big challenge.

The author has also discussed the role of superior judiciary, criminal justice system, political parties and army. Separate chapters have been given in the book to the issues of local government, civil society, and the state’s response to terrorism.

The author has discussed the missed opportunities in the socio-economic scenario of Pakistan. In this 173 pages book, the retired police officer besides some other issues has also discussed the issue of the local government system in Pakistan.

He has dedicated a chapter on the issue in which he has given a historic overview of the state of local government system and has observed that the military rulers used the same system for attaining their legitimacy.

At the end of the book, Azhar Hassan Nadeem has also given a way forward to the state of Pakistan and demands a new social contract and institutional reinvigoration. While pointing out the flaws, the author demands a new national criminal justice policy.

He also discusses that bureaucrats should also be given constitutional protection for which he gives a reference of 1956 constitution in which protection was guaranteed to the officers, however, it was revoked in 1973.

The book contains some key recommendations for the way forward for Pakistan. It is a good addition to the books discussing the problems and challenges of Pakistan, a good read not only for the students of history but also for scholars and policymakers who want to understand the challenges of the state of Pakistan and are trying to find solutions.