Bridging the governance deficit – II

Police Reforms: Police Order of 2002 was a promising start, but it was swept aside after the elections that year.

One other source of grief to the citizens is the uneven and discriminatory application of government rules, regulations and instructions. As these rules are not known to anyone except some limited number of lower functionaries, they exploit their power of hoarding this knowledge for their personal benefit. Multiple rules exist on the same subject, as there has been no systematic weeding-out exercise undertaken. The manuals have to be purged of the multiple rules, regulations, instructions and circulars, and a concise, accurate and updated set should be posted on the website.

Seventh, we need police and judicial reforms. For the ordinary citizen, it is the police force which represents the face of the state and in Pakistan it is synonymous with oppression, extortion and high-handedness. False cases are filed, criminal activities are patronised, fake encounters are contrived where the accused are slain and those apprehended are tortured.  The Police Order of 2002 was a promising start, but it was swept aside after the elections that year.  The prosecution capacity of the state is weak, often venal, and shoddy. In the prisons, those who can afford to keep the warden happy get preferential treatment. In short, the state of our police service, prisons, investigation and prosecution capacities, and administration of justice is a scandal. Recent initiatives by the National Judicial (policy making) Committee, which is chaired by the chief justice of Pakistan, to reform the lower judiciary and ensure speedy disposal of cases are commendable. But the conviction rates are so low that the criminals are not deterred.

Eighth, we have got to trim the fat. Following the 18^th Amendment and the new formula for dividing up tax revenue, the federal government has to be scaled down from 48 divisions to 23. Studies show that at least half of the government-owned corporations, autonomous bodies and departments can be wound up, merged, liquidated, privatised or transferred to the provincial governments.  Fewer hierarchical tiers, delegation of highly centralised decision-making and introduction of e-government would save costs and recurrent expenditure.

If the agenda for governance reforms is available, why there has been little progress? The challenge of reforming these institutions in Pakistan is formidable as vested interests wishing to perpetuate the status quo are politically powerful and the coalition and alliances between the political leadership and the beneficiaries of the existing system are so strong that they cannot be easily ruptured. The elected governments with an eye on the short term electoral cycles are not in a position to incur the pains from these reforms upfront while the gains accrue later on to a different political party. The authoritarian governments are not effective as they do not enjoy legitimacy for sustaining reforms. Changing institutions is a slow and difficult process requiring, in addition to significant political will, fundamental but tough measures to reduce the opportunity and incentives for powerful groups to capture economic rents.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2011.