Daily Times

A ship without a captain will inevitably go round and round, and sink. That seems to be the case of many of our public sector organisations that are still in search of a person to marshall their disengaged troops and reverse the ill and appalling fortunes of their institutions. The public sector is notorious for bad governance, indifference and bureaucracy in the best of circumstances; add to this portfolio of deadly viruses the factor of either not having any leader at all or having these ad hoc appointments whose major concern will be how to make their tenure sustainable rather than the organisation sustainable. After one year there seems to be absolutely no vision or plan on what to do about the haemorrhaging public sector that eats away Rs 500 billion due to corruption and mismanagement.

The solution proposed for many of them is privatisation. A lot has already been discussed on this topic but, till the time they are privatised and those that are not going to be privatised, there needs to be a roadmap on how they are going to continue without bleeding the economy to death. There are still about 30 institutions that are either without heads, or running on acting heads, or are being run by forced appointments that are being challenged in court. A prime example of this headless and directionless mess is the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). Other sufferers include the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and many more. Even in this brief sample we can see the impact of rudderless management by looking at the total commotion and paralysis in the media, electricity and gas crisis that the country is going through. The government started by announcing a professional head hunting exercise and appointing a commission, which was supposed to select people on merit, but the commission itself was rendered headless by constant interference from the government and bureaucracy.

There is no dearth of talent in this country for professional managers and there is no dearth of solutions for how to better govern and manage these institutions. However, there is a serious dearth of the usual political will of not appointing people on unquestioning loyalty but on unquestionable capability. The media is a classic casualty of this systemic politicisation. The people who are supposed to be handling media issues and conflicts are themselves in need of conflict management. PEMRA is now a feud between the public and private sector nominees where each is trying to establish their credentials as the stronger, more legal and valid forum. The amount of air time and news time being given to cover the bizarre situation of PEMRA is a continuation of the tragedy of errors by the government that has completely eroded the credibility of many an institution. PEMRA now needs another regulatory authority to regulate itself. The reporting quality and diversity of the media has seriously suffered as the whole focus of media houses now is how to twist and show the point of view they want to show.

Similar is the case with NADRA, which in the past has been the classic example of a public sector institution that was not only financially feasible but responsible for a lot of innovation in this sector internationally. With the removal of its chief, the process of upgrading the thumb verification system has again been dumped. The Election Commission Pakistan (ECP), after the departure of Fakhruddiin Ibrahim, had become a sorrier figure as it became evident the hapless way it was being pressurised by the government. There was recent movement on appointing an alternative chief but perhaps they could not find a man meeker than the previous chief so, unfortunately, the ECP remains, at best, an electoral post office.

Across the border in India, we have seen the power of a proper professional institution handling the elections of the largest and most diverse electoral college, and that too almost flawlessly. The reason behind this is the complete autonomy and merit prevailing in selecting the head of the institution that is empowered enough to select staff and systems on merit. The electronic voting system operating in India is an easily replicable model but the human resource empowering system of India is an almost impossibility in Pakistan given the entrenched vested interests of political parties in defeating electoral reforms.

From energy to elections, the crisis multiplies as institutions are not only stripped of their heads but of their ability to function with freedom and merit. The terrible energy crisis is attributable in part to shortage of supply of electricity and partially to mismanagement of the GENCOs, power theft and non-recovery of energy bills. With nearly Rs 300 billion in energy bills to be recovered, a resignation of the WAPDA chief and another non-merited appointment will not change the fortunes of the institution. Energy shortfall is of 3,000 megawatts, which should basically mean around four to five hours of load shedding. The remaining 10 hours of load shedding is all due to mismanagement and corruption, which can be curbed by competent management. We have seen in the past that organisations like Pak Steel became profitable with the appointment of professional management.

At the end of the day, signing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) and making a 2025 vision will just not be enough to spur on the economy if the problems at hand are not solved. A classic example of this is the GSP Plus status. It is all going to waste as industry after industry is giving advertisements in the newspaper begging and appealing to the government to give enough energy for their factories to run and their products to be produced on time at an expected quality level.

In a vibrant democracy a strong government creates strong institutions that enable good governance and performance that, in turn, strengthens the ruling government. An understanding of this chain is difficult for mindsets trained to treat institutions as opportunities to reward loyalty and then command subservience. As they say, the fish rots from the top. Whether it is a fish or a headless chicken example, institutional decay is the fundamental reason for the performance paralysis that we see in the country today. While building new roads and buying new train engines may be good limelight steps, building new mindsets and creating stronger institutions with capable leadership is the only way to bring enduring stability and success.

The writer is an analyst and columnist and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com