Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chairing the meeting of federal cabinet at the PM's office. PHOTO: PID
ISLAMABAD: A survey carried out by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency has shown that the quality of governance has improved in the second year of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.
The federal government received a score of 44%, according to a score-card issued by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) on Monday.
The analysis reveals that out of the 27 governance-assessment parameters examined, the federal government has shown improvement in performance in 18 parameters and deterioration in nine parameters.
The federal government has emerged strongest in its foreign policy management which is around 74%. The government improved international relations by initiating almost 112 bilateral and multilateral peace and reconciliation agreements between Pakistan and other countries in 2014-2015 as compared to 34 in 2013 to 2014.
The government received the second highest score for management of inflation at 65% and third highest for merit-based recruitments and promotions at 63% in the second year of the government, since assuming office in 2013.
Weaker side
The weakest performance has been under transparency with a low score of 22%. The government has not yet passed the reformed Right to Information (RTI) Bill.
The bill, passed in February 2014 by the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting, has since awaited the approval of the federal cabinet to be tabled in the parliament.
This score card is the second-of-its-kind in this series of federal and provincial scorecards on the assessment of the quality of governance in the second year of the governments in office.
In this assessment of the quality of governance, the federal government received an average score of 42% for rule of law, 44% for management of economy, 50% for administrative effectiveness, and the highest for service delivery at 51%.
For social indicators with a score of 30%, the PML-N government’s performance deteriorated during its second year in office. The objective behind the assessment of the quality of governance is to highlight key areas of strengths and potential areas requiring improvement in the quality of governance.
“The initiative is by no means an exercise in finger pointing at the government, but, in fact, is a collaborative effort intended to enable us in making informed, fact-based assessment regarding governance at the centre,” the statement adds.
The overall performance of the federal government was assessed across 27 parameters by calculating percentage change for over 100 governance indicators from 2013-2014 to 2014-2015.
Scores were assigned on a scale of one to five, depending on the magnitude of the percentage increase or decrease. The scores of the federal government are not to be compared with the provincial governments since the provinces were scored under a different methodology and relative to each other.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2016.
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