Is Pakistan too difficult to govern?

From popular and intellectual books, research essays and clueless TV analysts, everyone blames Pakistan, as it is too difficult to govern. But is it?

Is Pakistan really ungovernable? Or are we making excuses for our rulers? This line of thinking came up when successive governments failed to live up to their fairytale pre-election promises. Instead of correcting the way they governed it was easy to blame the public. Coronavirus is spreading because our public does not follow Covid-19 SOPs. Our traffic is a mess because people do not respect the traffic rules. People are poor because they are lazy. Education levels are low because people are not interested in studies. There is electricity theft because people steal electricity. This thinking of our rulers came out into the open when a senior police officer victim blamed the survivor of the highway gang rape incident for “recklessly” leaving her house at night.

We never heard from our rulers — both civilian and military — that may be it is them who don’t know how to govern. We blame hereditary politics of political parties but unfortunately we saw another type of nepotism in others when friends and old class-fellows were brought in and posted in key positions. Relatives and friends are loyal (to some extent) but may not have the required expertise for a position affecting a population of 220 million. So, if you are at the helm of affairs of a country, what do you need? Your loyalists sitting in key positions or those who may have experience and the qualification for the job? Your friends could keep you happy in good times but will be unable to manage a crisis when the time comes. And when a crisis starts, if you have someone appropriately experienced and qualified for the position, the crisis will be managed at an earlier stage. But then why don’t we hire the right person for the right job?

If a person is rightly qualified, (s)he will speak his/her mind. (S)he may disagree with us as (s)he will have more knowledge of the field. This is the problem as we think disagreement is a sign of disloyalty. Once I hired someone who was not on top of the list for a key position. My American boss was surprised — I told him that in Pakistan, he was the only subordinate who dared to disagree with my decisions and I needed someone in my inner circle to keep showing me the ground realities to stay on track. But I don’t blame the other subordinates who always tell the boss what (s)he wants to hear — the problem is with the bosses who believe in them.

A leader’s job is to develop a strategic vision, engage the best people and facilitate them in their job and focus on results. Given this framework, Pakistan has many success stories by the same “inefficient” governments. Rescue 1122 and Motorway Police are two examples that are very different from their parent organisations that are swimming in a sea of inefficiency and corruption. The early phase of the Bank of Punjab became a success story because the provincial government hired top professionals and protected the bank from political influences. The bank later became a sorry state of affairs when political intervention nearly destroyed it.

The problem is not with the public or Pakistan. It is with those who think they are the master of everything. Pakistan is a country with complex demographics and to govern it we need not only financially honest but also intellectually honest leaders. We need those who can delegate their responsibilities to the best available and qualified for the job. Pakistan is easily governable, we just need to reread a few basic lessons of governance.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2020.

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