Remaking Pakistan
The raging debate over carving up a new ruling order to improve the quality of governance across Pakistan deserves a much deeper assessment in view of the country’s history of past beginnings that eventually came to a grinding halt.
The system of basic democracies under Field Marshal Ayub Khan, elections devoid of political parties launched by the late president General Ziaul Haq and democracy built upon devolution of authority created by Gen Pervez Musharraf together present a history with ample lessons.
The latest plan presented by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who proclaimed the death of the country’s present order, is hard to disagree with at first sight. There is no disagreement with the claim that Pakistan’s present order has not just outlived its utility. The prevailing order has indeed become a huge liability for the country. In a knee-jerk reaction after Naqvi’s announcement, the PML-N was jolted, with some of its prominent leaders raising questions over the intent behind Naqvi’s remarks. Such critics failed to address an ever-growing gap between the shrinking ability of the state to care for Pakistan’s citizens across the board and the fate of individuals at the grassroots.
Over time, there have been periodic discussions over a failed system of service delivery, which in turn promoted calls for a new ruling order. In these discussions, there have been repeated calls to divide existing provinces into smaller units to lift their ability to serve the public. Despite this debate, there has been a failure to appreciate the root cause of the slide across today’s Pakistan.
During Musharraf’s rule, a well-laid-out administrative order was quickly dismantled in the name of devolving authority to elected representatives. While some functions at the federal level were transferred to Pakistan’s provinces, the same initiative did not go any further. Eventually, the provinces did not devolve their authority to empower grassroots governments. In this ill-fated journey, elected local bodies have not continued beyond the system of ‘nazimeen’ or mayors that led the initiative.
The architects of the latest initiative must learn from the mistakes of the past that have already saddled Pakistan with unprecedented internal polarisation since the last election of February 2024. What began as a straight political fight between the PTI led by former prime minister Imran Khan and the ruling camp has ended up as a fight within the ruling structure. This was witnessed through the ugly and very public discord between the PML-N and the PPP over elections to the legislature of Azad Kashmir. Consequently, a PML-N-led government in Azad Kashmir will inevitably be surrounded by potentially recurring infighting from early on.
Ending this discord, notably in view of Pakistan’s history, is pivotal to tackling some of the biggest challenges confronting Pakistan, such as reversing the economy’s downward slide. Key elements of economic reforms rest upon Pakistan’s ability to forge a badly needed national consensus. This is vital in areas like changing the country’s economic direction from its present emphasis on infrastructure projects, notably roads, to investments in more urgent undertakings, notably building dams and reversing the slide in agriculture – a key prerequisite to tackle the effects of climate change. Other areas of central significance to the future of Pakistan include sustenance of the country’s global engagements while battling the terrible spread of terrorism internally.
A national consensus between political parties must serve as the bedrock for creating a united view that will not be squandered over time. Pakistan’s history, as mentioned earlier, presents detailed accounts of initiatives from yesteryears undertaken in the name of reforms that eventually just perished.
Any fresh reforms in future can best be done successfully by reversing the weakening of Pakistan’s administrative framework at the grassroots. This links back to the way that a carefully structured system at the level of districts and Tehsils across the country was abruptly thrown out under Musharraf’s devolution plan.
That weakening has progressed alongside the spread of lawlessness and a visible decline in social services, notably in education and healthcare. In a country where more than one third of the population lives in abject poverty, the luxury of time is just not on Pakistan’s side. In the short term, there is no alternative to strengthening governments at the grassroots via the network of civil servants serving across districts and beyond.
For the medium to long term, reversing Pakistan’s internal polarisation must become an essential pre-requisite for reforms undertaken afresh. And that requires reversal of trends going back to the last elections.
The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist who writes on political and economic affairs. He can be reached at: [email protected]
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.