KARACHI:
Good governance or its lack thereof has always been an important discussion in Pakistan. When it comes to the state’s duty to provide good governance to the masses, it should perform effectively at all tiers of the government. Unfortunately, but evidently, poor governance exists in Pakistan in the form of corruption, institutional crashes, constitutional disaster, absence of accountability and absence of a proper system of check and balance. Since independence, instability has affected Pakistan’s political system. An overhaul of state institutions coupled with globalisation and innovation in technology can change the political culture.
The 18th Amendment in the Constitution empowered the provinces for more autonomy and self-governance, cumulated and enlarged the guarantees and fundamental civil and political rights. In the presence of such constitutional guarantees, a prosperous participatory culture should have evolved, but our regimes have curtailed these fundamental rights. Incompetent leadership has harmed the system of governance. All political leaders lacked a strategic vision for Pakistan. They did not conceive of Pakistan’s emerging challenges and the best possible solutions. They failed to realise that Pakistan can only become a reliable and robust state if it educates its citizens and equips its workers with skills. Pakistan has been caught in a debt trap and has no independent foreign policy or plans to bring millions of people out of acute poverty.
A democratic system facilitates and supports the people. Therefore, active participation of the masses is important in a democratic setup. To strengthen the power at the grass root level, the local government should be representative of the people and the masses should be aware of their political and civic rights.
Shafi Ahmed Khowaja
Hyderabad
Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2022.
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