Essay: Crisis of Good Governance in Pakistan: Need

for Reform and Institution Building

1. Introduction
Pakistan is not a failed state but a badly governed one. Today, the state of Pakistan’s
institutions of governance remains poor, as illustrated by a slew of measures. Good
governance is the inevitable element of a state the absence of which deteriorates the public
welfare. With measured reforms and institutionalization, governance can be made better in
the country. Pakistan is a state rich in resources and talent but badly governed. A brief history
of country since 1947 reveals how different modes of governance have been brought into
experiment under various civil and military regimes in Pakistan. Pakistan was one of the top
10 economic performers among the developing countries in the world during the first 40 years
of its existence. Given its very weak economic base at the time of independence in 1947 and
a tumultuous period of nation building marked by continuing political instability in the
aftermath of the death of its founder, Pakistan’s record of achievements in its first four
decades was impressive. Post these 40 years is another tragic story of corruption,
shortsightedness of government officials with selfish agendas with ever weakening
institutions. Pakistan has since lacked organization and systemic approach of running the
matters of the state.

Good governance, in general, refers to the measures of a government, which bring welfare to
the public lives and state as a whole. Contrary to that, crisis of good governance is the
continuous failure of a government to govern the state and its subjects effectively. Scales to
measure good governance varies just as vary its levels in different government sectors.
Efficient governance is commonly understood to embody the characteristics of accountable,
transparent, participatory, responsive, effective, and efficient; to minimize corruption; to take
into account the views of minorities; and finally, and perhaps most importantly, to follow the
rule of law. This paper presents and examines governance issues related to state-owned
enterprises (SOEs), with particular emphasis on privatization.

In the essay, “Pakistan’s Institutions: We Know They Matter, But How Can They Work
Better?” by Micheal Kugelman and Ishrat Hussain write about Pakistan’s institutions saying,
“Pakistan suffers from institutional failure” and “Failed institutions are unable to correct the
problems faced by the society and eventually lead to economic failure… If our leaders are
sincere for change in Pakistan then they have to first get the institutions working again. But
do they know how or have the will to do it?”

The World Bank’s latest Worldwide governance Indicators, based on data from 2016, rank
Pakistan in the 29th percentile for government effectiveness, the 27th percentile for regulatory
quality, the 20th percentile for rule of law, and the 19th percentile for control of corruption.
Pakistan fell from 144th place in 2016 to 148th place in 2018 in the World Bank’s ease of
doing business rankings. The latest United Nations Development Program Human
 Development report, published in 2017, ranks Pakistan 147th.

In recent years, Pakistan has enjoyed increases in annual GDP growth and plunges in its
average inflation rate, among other macroeconomic bright spots. At the same time, however,
the country’s overall economic performance has lagged, particularly in relation to that of its
neighbors. While Pakistan was one of the top economic performers in the developing world
over the first four decades of its existence, its economic fortunes took a major tumble in the
early 1990s—with its growth rate plunging from 6.5 to 4.5 percent. “The most powerful
explanatory hypothesis” for this shift, writes Ishrat Husain in a comprehensive opening essay,
is not a worsening security situation, patterns of foreign assistance, disproportionate defense
expenditures, or external economic factors, among other frequently cited explanations, but
rather “the decay of institutions of governance.” He highlights a range of data from many
countries, including Pakistan, which underscores the strong, direct links between good
governance and robust economic performance.

Pakistani government has successfully implemented conversion of is statutory corporations

and divisions into entities under the Companies Act 2017, a more difficult task is to give
these converted corporate bodies a much-needed commercial mindset and framework.
Commercialization of these SOEs requires a cleaning up of balance sheets; a retrenchment
of employees; a stop to all non-commercial business and activity; the introduction of modern
technology; and a change in mindset and culture.

The popular image of Pakistan externally is that of a fragile or failed state with a large and
expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons encircled by Islamic extremists, and of a safe haven
for nurturing and training terrorists who pose a threat to other countries. There is
considerable unease in the international community about the unending rivalry and hostility
between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, bitter enemies that have fought three wars and
are all the more close to another one over revocation of article 370 and 35a from the Indian
Constitution. There is a radioactive line of control (LoC: UN resolution 1949) in Kashmir
between India and Pakistan _ with continuous breaching and cross-border firing.

Recently, there are news of Nigeria being declared Polio free as of 2019 there has been no
cases of polio there for the past 3 years. This means Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only
two countries in the world left with this disease, PM Imran Khan has declared it an urgent
matter and this initiative is being applauded worldwide, Bill Gates even wrote to him
appreciating his efforts but there is a dire need to take substantial steps. Countrywide Malaria
cases and recent Sindh HIV havoc are all screaming that there is a need for reforms and a
systemic approach to running matters.

Bangladesh’s population growth is well below Pakistan’s 2 percent rate, which means that its
per capita income is growing faster than Pakistan’s by approximately 3.3 percentage points
per year. Bangladesh at this rate will overtake Pakistan in terms of per capita GDP in 2020.
Besides population control, Bangladesh also has a large percentage of working women
especially in the apparel industry, their working women percentage is exceeding as of 2018
that of India as well.

2. Attributes of Good Governance

 2.1 General Public Welfare and State's Health
2.2 Provision of fundamental rights
2.3 Provisions of Basic Necessities Participations of all who make of represent the society
2.4 Health, Education, Standard of Living for all
2.5 Transparency in all matters
2.6 Across the board accountability
2.7 Rule of Law
2.8 Inclusiveness
2.9 Good governance in Pakistan

3. With respect to a country good governance can be identified in any of the following relationships-

3.1 Relationship between the government and masses

3.2 Relationship between the government and public institutions
3.3 Relationship between the government and markets
3.5 Between government and officials
3.5 Between elected officials and appointed officials
3.6 Between the officials and citizens

4. Crisis of Good Governance in Pakistan

4.1 Sectors badly governed in Pakistan
4.2 Institutions badly governed in Pakistan

5. Causes of Good-Governance Crisis

5.2 Personalization rather than institutionalization

5.3 Corruption and nepotism
5.3 Ineffective short-term policies
5.4 Wrongly set priorities
5.5 Weak accountability
5.6 Weak state governing institutions
5.7 Political instability

6. Reforms and Institution Building

6.1 Strengthening the state institutions:

Institutional Reform must emphasize gradual, incremental
actions over rapid, comprehensive measures. This can be done by singling out for reform a small
group of institutions. The chosen institutions should be those that, once successively reformed,
can also have positive crossover and spillover effects on other institutions. These institutions
should be focused on accountability (such as the National Accountability Bureau and the Auditor
General), security (such as the National Counter-terrorism Agency and the Federal Investigation
Agency), growth (such as the Federal Board of Revenue and the Trade Development Authority)
and equity (such as the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council and urban
 development authorities).
6.2 Making the state institutions independent of undue influence
6.3 Bodies for effective implementation of laws
Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)
Code of Corporate Governance 2002
District education authority (DEA) 2017
6.4 Empowering accountability and law-enforcing agencies
National Accountability Bureau
Anti-Narcotics Force
Federal Investigation Agency
6.5 Ensuring political stability and nurturing the healthy growth of democratic system

7. Contemporary Governance in Pakistan

8. Conclusion
Governance and its means of implementation today, may not be what they should be; future
is not hopeless, what urgently needs be done is strengthening institutions with reforms where required.
However, there are numerous existing laws in Pakistan to counter governance crisis and their
implementation is the real hurdle.

QUOTATIONS

PRAS HANTH: Good governance should be like the air. Its presence need not be discussed but its
absences would make a huge difference.

GENERAL ZINNI in his book, Battle for peace: Instabilities internal or external duly undermine
nations but nothing brings down countries like corruption at the hands of elected state
functionaries of any nation.

Kofi Annan: Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the
challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good
governance.

Joe Biden: Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.

Thomas Paine: As in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to
be King; and there ought to be no other.