Administrative mayhem in Pakistan

Pakistan seems to be suffering from administrative hotchpotch as the delimitation by the Election Commission of Pakistan has raised serious objections and concerns and has even threatened the holding of the next elections within the constitutionally-stipulated time frame. This is only the aspect of the administrative mayhem, as on the other hand local governments are not living up to the expectations of the people. While the provincial governments have been hesitant to devolve administrative, legal and financial authority to the district and lower tiers of governments, of late there have been voices to rollback the 18^th Constitutional Amendment. Through the amendment the Concurrent Legislative List of the Constitution was abolished and subjects/departments contained in the list were devolved to the provincial governments. For their part the provincial governments have been trying to deal with the new powers and authority under the said amendment but have generally failed to be on track to achieve viable and sustainable public policies and adhere to the universally-recognised standards of good governance.

Keeping in view the administrative issues and prevalent bad governance, Pakistan needs to rationalise its administrative structure. There are various aspects of this, including revamping the whole administrative edifice which currently is based generally on the federal-provincial-district divisions; introducing extensive and across the board civil-services reforms; revisiting existing policies and plugging policy gaps.

Insofar as revamping the whole administrative structure of the country is concerned the policymakers have to come up with novel solutions. The structure we have is colonial and with large-scale social, political, economic, technological and other changes particularly the manifold increase in population, the colonial structures have been found wanting. Therefore, there has been a need to come up with new administrative structures which have the capacity to address issues of the contemporary postmodern times and people.

The most important aspect of administrative restructuring is forming more viable and administratively functional provinces. Over the years we have observed that provinces have failed to give viable, sustainable good governance structures and models. The reason is that provincial governments have so many areas, issues and problems to negotiate but they find themselves incapacitated to respond effectively. This has particularly been the situation since the passage of the 18^th Amendment in 2010 when provinces were given more subjects to legislate upon and govern. The provinces have had huge capacity issues to come up with sound legislation and policies regarding the large number of departments handed over to them.

The establishment of the local government system in provinces has been a positive political development but most of the districts and lower tiers of municipal structures have generally failed to deliver to the people and address their key issues. The main causes of this have been lack of capacity and will among the elected representatives. Another key reason has been provinces’ reluctance to devolve administrative, legal and financial authority to districts and tehsil level governments. Consequently, there has been a hotchpotch with so many officials and departments but little respite and relief to the people in terms of provision of basic amenities and solution of their basic problems. The issues could be meaningfully addressed by creating more provinces as the local government structures could be made really functional to be of any value to the people.

Extensive civil services reforms have become critically important so that a thoroughly professional cadre, whose members consider them as public servants rather than rulers being accountable to public representative, could be put in place. In this connection the recommendations of Dr Ishrat Hussain, who was given the task to come up with a thorough report to reform the civil service by the previous regime, must be looked into by current policymakers. Administrative restructuring along with fundamental changes in the political system is the only solution for Pakistan to address its ever-burgeoning administrative problems and issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2018.

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