Naghmana Naheed

04th Dec, 2022. 09:35 am

Pakistan’ governance and development enigma

“God has given us a grand opportunity to show our worth as architects of a new State; let it not be said that we did not prove equal to the task.”

— Quaid’s address to Civil, Military and Air Force Officers,
11 October, 1947.

Pakistan, the dream of Allama Iqbal, the result of tireless efforts and visionary leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and sacrifices of millions of Muslims came into existence on 14 August 1947, which also coincided with 27th of Ramadan. Named by Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, Pakistan the land of the pure, represented the dreams and aspirations of the Muslims and the minorities living in East and West Pakistan and the cherished land for the millions who left all their worldly possessions and migrated to Pakistan. It was the largest and first Muslim country created on ideological basis and thus looked upon as the leader of the Muslim world.  In terms of population, it was also the third largest country in 1947 and in terms of the area, the sixth largest.

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the Governor-General while Liaquat Ali Khan the first Prime Minister, thus laying the foundation of parliamentary form of democracy and with the lofty motto of which the Quaid instructed, “never forget the motto: Unity, Faith and Discipline.” Speech from Radio Pakistan, Lahore, 30 October, 1947.

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Quaid knew the value of hard work and knowledge. His sagacious advice was to, “Work, work and work and we are bound to success.” Speech from Radio Pakistan, Lahore 30 October 1947. Again in 1948, he reiterated, “Develop a sound sense of discipline, character, initiative and a solid academic background. You must devote yourself wholeheartedly to your studies, for that is your first obligation to yourselves, your parents and to the State. You must learn to obey, for only then you can learn to command.” Reply to the Address presented by Islamia College Students, Peshawar, 12 April, 1948.

However, since the establishment of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, the governance and economy of Pakistan have repeatedly traversed rough seas and met road blocks that keep knocking it off the chartered course. The poor state of governance completely distorts the potential for socio-economic growth enhancing poverty is now conventional wisdom. How to break from this viscous cycle and achieve a level and structure of economic growth and efficient governance that can promptly reduce poverty and rise inequality in the country is the real dilemma that must be resolved.

One of the major impediments to enhancing participatory and good governance is the disproportionate exercise and unacceptable levels of influence of elite pressure groups and lobbies over collective functions of the state and manipulation of decision making processes to secure undue benefits for themselves. Lack of education, class, asset-ownership, land ownership and politically strong family affiliations, political power, military power, historically discriminated social groups, etc. have all constituted to elite control of government resources for their benefit at the cost of others.

This multi-dimensional phenomenon has demonstrated itself in Pakistan right from the beginning. Being a new state carved out of a larger entity with no experience or established governance system, it was natural for the educated elite to partner with the other powerful groups in society like the landlords, industrialists, businessmen, bureaucracy and the military to take hold of the new state and make it functional. To this extent, it can be accepted and explained as the result of unavoidable circumstances.

The unfortunate death of the founding fathers in the early years however, complicated the situation with not only governance, but also the economic and ideological orientation of the country. Failed attempts to agree on a governance and development model and a workable constitution, led to military takeover early in the formative years which continued at regular intervals not allowing democracy to mature and take roots or for the people to learn the attributes and rights and duties of citizenship and value of participatory or accountable democracy.

This state of flux and uncertainty encouraged the self-centred elite groups to strengthen their hold on policy formulation which landed Pakistan in the clutches of governance crisis accentuated by inefficient deployment of resources, crippling debt burden, unbridgeable social divisions, arbitrary enforcement of laws, and personalised decision-making and sadly questionable integrity of all pillars of state. It would however, be wrong to apportion the blame of this collective failure on any particular institution or government. It is the result of 75 years of poor governance, interruptions in democratic process and criminal disregard of the interests of common people.

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The Quaid taught us that resources of the country belonged to all; and that one Pakistani was for all and all for one. But where are we today, practicing the philosophy that public resources exist to be plundered by those in authority and with access. Sectarianism and parochialism galore all around, excellence retracting in the face of aggressively spreading mediocrity and a pervading culture of abuse, intolerance, hypocrisy and bigotry in the public space.

I firmly believe that Pakistan’s elections are neither divisive nor violent. It is the strategies of politicians that are divisive before the ballots and violent after. Politicians, not the electorate, see elections as a zero sum game. Politicians acting as tribal chieftains, not the voting public, preaching that it’s-our-turn-to-eat gospel. Politicians, not people, are now justifying corruption in the county as looting by ‘our own where previously others looted our share’; each one claiming to be more patriotic and his brand of Islam or democracy is better than that of others, everyone calling the other one traitor and thief and following some hideous agenda against the state. If we are ever to have a common national ethos, this has to stop.

At the governance level, it is politics that concentrated decision-making over national resources at the centre and created marginalised peripheries by skewing the distribution of the resources. Politics created the devolved units by passing the 18th Amendment and politics is killing them by starving them of funds. Politics is now defining inclusivity as the expansion of the executive rather than the creation of policies geared to reducing poverty; promoting equality of opportunities; increasing access to resources, employment, basic services and, crucially, entrenching public participation in decision-making.

Our curse is our politics by politician, selfish and powerful pressure groups and other stakeholders which have corrupted and polluted what would have been our national ethos and policy priorities. The Constitution is no more sacrosanct and is used as a crucial tool for political re-engineering. I feel our 1973 Constitution is the best we have and must remain the fundamental framework on which the state stands. It is not the constitution that needs fixing, it’s our societal psyche that needs a complete detoxification of all the polluting elements, including populism and extremism that have penetrated our ideology, culture and ethos.

What needs fixing in Pakistan is education and elite capture groups in all segments of society and our politics of hate, division, parochialism and sectarianism. And it can only be fixed by collective participation of all and not by shutting other players out. The country needs inclusion and not exclusion, political exclusivists practicing divisive politics need to be marginalised if we are ever to develop an identifiable National Ethos leading us to Unity, Faith and Discipline, the golden principles and foundation of a strong country.

The objective of national ethos formation can be achieved by inculcating four main dimensions of national ethos: values, feelings and spirit, beliefs and identity among the youth. This will form the basis of norms and social behaviour which eventually be transferred to the masses and build the required national ethos of Pakistan. Therefore, national ethos can be said to be central to the agenda of nation-state formation, especially in achieving the goal of national unity and national integration.

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The writer is a former Ambassador to China, the EU and Ireland

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