Daily Times

The parliament seems to be the most important institution in the country. Therefore, it must show that it is the real house of the real representatives of the people and is present there for the people. It must be responsible and vigilant in its activities to keep the executive and other key institutions in line or else it would be reduced to a rubberstamp role. It must reactivate its dormant committees to carry out its responsibilities properly instead of being used for political purposes.

The judiciary is, probably, the most important pillar in our country because it is the judiciary that ensures obedience to the law. It not only interprets the Constitution and other legal documents but also ensures their upholding. Judiciary in Pakistan is going through some serious internal and external challenges. It needs to ensure unity amongst its ranks and must not play as a tool for political purposes. It must ensure its independence for which it needs to stand firm by its decisions, which are framed solely on legal grounds. Inter-instructional interference leaves the functional structure of the affected institutions shallow. The underlined purpose must be to hold the Constitution supreme.

Various executive departments also need some serious overhaul. The executive, sitting at the top of the hierarchy, must play an active, vigilant and responsible role to keep all its subordinate departments workable. A fair intra-departmental accountability mechanism triggers better performance. There must be a thorough supervision of the administration.

There must be fair and vibrant surveillance of civil servants to hold them accountable.

While discussing some major departments working under the executive institution, one cannot ignore the role of civil services commonly known as bureaucracy. These services come across several challenges ranging from internal to external ones. Internally, they need to ensure speedy service delivery, transparency, accessibility and fairness. They must expurgate the menaces of corruption bribery and partiality. Moreover, the higher authority must ensure their security on the job. They must be provided with fair salaries and allowances. Similarly, they must not be used for political purposes. Their recruitment, promotion and transfer must meet meritocracy. Externally, civil servants must be let free of external interference and influence. This is the only way an institution can perform effectively. Moreover, there must be a fair and vibrant system of surveillance on the work of civil servants to hold them accountable.

Likewise, those in real authority must ponder over how to pull the country out of the ongoing economic quagmire. For this, Pakistan must show first of all serious political will in devising durable policies to address the structural problems of its economy. It must ensure to implementation of the devised policies since this is common in Pakistan that the devised policies are lost somewhere at the approval or implementation stage. In the short term, it needs to curb the embezzlement and mismanagement in economic real. In the long term, the structural problems in its economy must be uprooted and thrown aside. For this, it must ensure balancing its trade and fiscal imbalances which in turn would control the forex depletion and the currency would get stabilized. Putting back the economy on track would gradually other problems like inflation. However, all this needs sincerity and seriousness on the part of the government which will compel it to set the right priorities.

The absence of local government, though ignored by many, is the real contributor to the attenuation of the governance crisis. The presence of an empowered local government undoubtedly addresses many governance-related issues. It is the most viable at the local level since the local authority belongs to the same locality and knows better each and everything. People can also get in touch with it easily. Pakistan has yet to install a fully empowered government notwithstanding the constitutional order Article 140(A) of the 1973 constitution to install local government having full authority in financial and administrative matters and is independent since it is the third tier in political institution along with the federal and provincial governments. The main reason behind such a prolonged absence of an empowered local government is the whimsical politics of the politicians who are doing politics at the provincial level. Though different local government models and proposals have been brought to the surface over the course of history, none has succeeded in installing local government for good.

Summing up the analysis, it is made clear that the prevailing crisis-stricken status of Pakistan has largely been triggered by the poor performance of its key institutions. Almost all of them are going through a handful of issues and challenges which they badly need to address. Otherwise, the time is not far away when they would see their decline. One line encompassing all intentions to bring durable reforms is that unless and until there is a strong presence of political will, constitutionality and absence of external interference, any effort, no matter how much serious and durable, will not succeed in getting its desired outcome.

The writer has done his Master of Arts in English Literature and Linguistics from NUML Islamabad and can be reached at abdulsamad khanbannu22@gmail.com.