The progress and prosperity of a nation hinges on strong and inclusive political and economic institutions. Other factors namely geography or culture may contribute in one way or the other but without strengthening the key institutions development remains but a pipe dream. Inclusive institutions bring best individuals to the forefront in the political and economic spheres by giving level playing field to every one thereby benefitting both the individuals and society. Inclusivity makes both the people and society rich.
Our political institutions are not inclusive. Rather, they have become highly personalised restricting the political leadership to be the choice of a few. The way political parties are run and elections are contested pave the way for the affluent segment of society to enter the political arena. High cost involved in general and even local bodies elections leaves hardly any space for the common man to fit in. Political institutions are thus extractive by their very nature, and the narrow political elite harvesting the political dividends wants the continuation of the status quo because it favours and perpetuates their interests.
True leadership emerges by holding intra-party elections in tandem with the democratic spirit and strengthening the local governments. The ruling parties, except Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, have been reluctant to hold local bodies elections, and devolve power at the grassroots level thus restricting the way for local leadership to emerge and to take control of their own affairs. Even after the local bodies elections, all the provinces with the sole exception of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa have denied transfer of powers to the locally elected representatives. This is indicative of the fact as to how our political institutions are far from becoming inclusive, which is sine quo non for development and democracy to take deep roots.
Leadership emerging out of the extractive political institutions is tempted towards making money and creating economic institutions aimed at safeguarding their economic interests. Again these economic institutions are not inclusive. The political elite extract benefits out of the economic institutions at the cost of the rest of the population thus creating extractive economic institutions.
Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson in their book titled Why Nations Fail have maintained that extractive economic and political institutions are inter-dependent. Extractive economic institutions are extractive because such institutions are designed to extract income and wealth from one subset of society to benefit a different subset. Resultantly, one segment of society makes fortunes at the expense of the others. Ever increasing disparity between different segments of society and regions, and the yawning gap between the rich and the poor indicate that much needs to be done to make our economic institutions inclusive.
Extractive economic institutions create poverty and illiteracy. A vast majority of the populations finds it hard to make their both ends meet, not to speak of access to education and health facilities. According to Pakistan’s first ever official report on multidimensional poverty, four out of 10 Pakistanis are poor. The report reveals that nearly 39 percent of Pakistanis live in poverty with highest rate of poverty in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan. The report further reveals that poverty level has actually increased in several districts in Balochistan and Sindh during the past decade.
Likewise, Pakistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. According to UNESCO, literacy rate is 55 percent, and Pakistan stands 160th in the world. Without equipping the youth with modern education and making it accessible to everyone, development will always remain an elusive dream.
The solution of the problems regarding development lies in making institutions inclusive. Inclusive economic institutions can only be formed by inclusive political institutions. Through inclusive political institutions power is broadly distributed in a society thereby making it difficult for its arbitrary use. Such an arrangement also makes it difficult for those with vested interests to undermine the very foundations of the inclusive institutions. Economic institutions thus created will help in achieving more equitable distribution of resources benefitting all segments of society.
Muhammad Shahid Rafique is an M.Phil scholar in Gender Studies
Nazia Abdul Ghaffar is a lecturer in Gender Studies Department, University of Punjab, Lahore