The brighter side

In a talk with students at IBA, Dr Ishrat talked about decline of institutions like civil service

I have had the pleasure of reading Dr Ishrat Husain’s book “Governing the Ungovernable” which was published earlier this year. In the words of Dr Ishrat, this book is written for the layperson. It is a good read and allowed me to understand basic issues about our Pakistan. More important is his prescription of what can be done to put things right.

I have known Dr Ishrat for the past fifteen years or more. My first communication with him was when he was with the World Bank and I was a business reporter with a newswire. Over the period of time, I have seen him in different roles – as State Bank governor and then as dean and director of IBA. It was his leadership that transformed both institutions. I know Dr Ishrat as a “doer” – making things happen.

I still have with me a letter he wrote to me in his capacity as Governor of the State Bank in response to a column I’d written on the refurbishment of the country’s main financial district – II Chundrigar Road. He had politely disagreed with some points of my writing. Looking back, I marvel at how Dr Ishrat had single-handedly persuaded the banks and financial institutions to help pay for the road reconstruction. This was not part of his work at the Bank but that did not stop him to make an effort to change things around him for the better.

His latest book should be read in the same vein. He starts by telling us that Pakistan was one of the top ten economic performers among the developing countries of the world during the first forty years of its existence.  Despite the fragile situation at the time of independence and the succeeding years, and the challenges that came later like the war with India, the country was on the path to economic progress.  It was the nationalization of private assets in the 70s coupled with rising oil prices led to the dislocation of the economy.  Following this, the Afghan war and the circumstances around it destroyed our social fabric. By the 80s Pakistan had begun to exhibit the characteristics of a middle-income country. But by the 90s it had fallen behind.

In a talk with students at the IBA, Dr Ishrat talked about the decline of institutions like the civil service. From being a premier institution that produced some of the best officers in the country, it has been reduced in both stature and effectiveness because of the lack of merit in the recruitment process.  The government officers of today are a good example of why the country is faltering.

No discussion on Pakistan is complete without a mention of both the military and the role of intelligence agencies given that Dr Ishrat blames poor governance as being one of the major factors for the country’s declining fortunes. But the good doctor argues that it was the politicians who through their poor performance and short-term gains gave space to other players. “We have to take that space back,” he told an audience recently.

He terms military governments an “aberration” and observes that empirical evidence of Pakistan’s several experiments with strong military-led governments suggests that economic progress devoid of political legitimacy, however impressive, proves to be elusive and leaves no lasting footprints.

To give an example. Dr Ishrat praises the local government system that was introduced in General Musharraf’s time as well as other steps that were taken including how the HEC was transformed. And he also laments the fact that with the change in government, most of these reforms were lost.

But what to do? Among the possible solutions, Dr Ishrat advocates institutional strengthening in support of the reform agenda. Naming more than 25 such institutions that range from parliamentary committees, NAB, ECP, Public service commission to the lower judiciary, police, NACTA and regulators like SBP, SECP as well as the FBR and HEC – he argues that reform of these institutions would create a ripple effect and over time produce a cumulative impact. For a layman like me, this makes sense.  The most important lesson that Dr Ishrat shares with us is that things can get better if we put our mind to it.  That is the best news I’ve heard in a long time.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2018.

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