Competent political leadership is very important for any country. It requires a focus on the long-term good of a country, above and ahead of any personal short-term gains. Good political leadership requires a combination of charisma and integrity, as well as the ability to assess a situation and make bold decisions based on what would be the best for the greatest number of people and for country and same is required at district level. Most of all, with other qualities, leadership in a political framework requires strong decision power, pro-activeness and abilities to handle all national and international issues positively.
In developed countries, the democratic systems also provide and nourish best leadership for the countries from grass root level. All countries have different set ups which are providing opportunities to their local, provincial and national leaders to learn and grow for the betterment of their countries. In these democracies, an academic qualification of their leaders does not matter as they learn and grow in a very competitive atmosphere where high literacy rate is enabling everybody to prove their abilities for their personal and political sustainability in political framework. Even then majority of their leaders are highly qualified and equipped with relevant skills.
Unfortunately, in Asian countries especially in Pakistan, After British Rule, due to wrong practices, martial laws, political instability and feudalism, our nation could not get best, devoted and sincere leaderships even at district level, except few. As a result, bureaucracy got stronger and stronger and political system could not grow as normally happened in other countries. Currently we have three very strong political parties but unfortunately we have only few top ranked political leaders in these parties who can be considered as real political leaders and who can lead the nation in good or bad situations.
Why our system could not produce or train our political workers who can be considered or utilized as most relevant and suitable political leaders in future and who can run important ministries and departments independently at district, provincial and federal level.
Federal government should direct Higher Education Commission to introduce one new degree or subject in all public sector universities with the name of Politics or Political Leadership
If we look at the current district, provincial and national assembly constituencies including Senate, we have almost two thousand plus different seats and if we consider only three main parties, after every five years, we need six thousand political trained workers who can take part in local, provincial, national and Senate elections to complete the democratic process and to form government at different levels. It means, after every five years we need almost two thousand political workers who can form government and lead provincial and federal ministries, departments and different kind of committees and task forces.
All these ministries and departments have their best officers who pass and qualify competitive exams and interviews. They also complete extensive trainings and managerial courses to run their relevant departments. Similarly, our engineers, doctors, CSPs, PCS officers, Army officers and even religious scholars get proper education and pass different courses and examinations to run their relevant departments and fields. But unfortunately, due to the wrongly developed political system, competent political workers cannot compete and win in general elections. Political parties nominate and grant tickets to irrelevant and incompetent persons on financial basis and later these persons cannot even properly utilize the available human resources in ministries and departments.
As these human resources are the most competent staff who came through a very strong competition system so automatically it develop very serious gap in working relationship between these two. Political leaders at district, province and federal level cannot take revolutionary decisions to get maximum benefits of public funds in terms of development projects. The main responsibility of political leaders in democratic system is allocation and monitoring of public funds, projects and to ensure the sustainability of these projects. They are also responsible for policy making, implementation and advice possible amendments in constitution as and when required. These are some important responsibilities other than routine work on daily basis in public offices.
These are some ground realities and in general public, it is very well admitted this truth that gap between ministers and bureaucracy is causing unnecessary tug of war which is at the end resulting as delays in development projects and some managerial issues. This is not a new issue it started right from 1985’s Election and still it is happening. And same issue is also being faced by current government. Some transfers or terminations are not the permanent solution to solve this issue.
Government should take some revolutionary steps that can benefit in long run and at least in next general election we can get some trained political workers who can take part in upcoming election in 2023 and political parties should give chance to these political workers to be part of provincial and federal government.
Federal government should direct Higher Education Commission to introduce one new degree or subject in all public sector universities with the name of Politics or Political Leadership. In this program universities should include subjects compulsory and elective subjects like public funds management, foreign affairs Social development etc. Or universities should design the degree of Political Science according to the requirements of this country.
No doubt we have some very good political workers in all political parties but still our nation need good MNAs and MPAs at district level who can bring real development and can take good decisions for the betterment of their constituencies.
Apparently it looks very strange but with the passage of five or ten years we will have highly qualified youth in the field of politics who can replace and lead relevant departments. Why we need this revolutionary decision because, as discussed earlier, from current political system only financially strong candidates are coming forward either they have ability to lead any ministry and department or not.
After five or ten years Election Commission should make it mandatory for all candidates that only this degree holder can take part in general elections at federal and provincial level.
The writer is a Research Coordinator at SDPI