Bad Governance In Pakistan: Issues, Challenges, and Way Forward | Best for CSS, PMS Current Affairs, Pakistan Affairs, and Essay Papers
The answer is solved by Syed Muhammad Hamza on the given pattern, which Sir Syed Kazim Ali teaches to his students, who consistently score the maximum because of their attempting the questions.
Outline
Introduction:
Despite more than seventy years of the independence of Pakistan, bad governance stands as the most lethal and uncured social evil prevailing in the country. It has given birth to other social issues: unemployment, economic declivity, and inept policies. However, practical measures may pluck the country out of the malice.
2- Current situation
3- How has bad governance affected Pakistan?
- Increasing the rate of unemployment by hampering meritocracy
- Declining economic prosperity
- Resulting in substandard and inept policies
- Boosting poverty in the state
4- What are the leading causes of bad governance in Pakistan?
- The political instability
- The absence of accountability
- The apathetic nature of public
- The overlapping of jurisdictions of different administrative institutions
5- How to overcome bad governance issues?
- To build coordination among different levels of administration
- To enhance access to information
- To analyze the loopholes in the laws and fill them
- To make the masses aware of their political and social rights
- To encourage an institutionalized policymaking process
- To empower the local government
6- Critical analysis
7- Conclusion
Answer to the Question
Introduction
Indeed, no country can progress unless its governance is forfeit and free of loopholes. Unfortunately, Pakistan has dreadfully suffered from lousy governance since its inception. Despite raising thousands of slogans against poor governance in Pakistan, no successive government could become the game-changer for the country. The failures of the succeeding governments in tackling this curse have led the country to several other social evils: unemployment, socio-economic declivity, poverty, and many other issues. The studies have unfolded that political instability, the absence of accountability, and the apathetic nature of the public are the paramount factors behind the poor governance in the country. However, introducing pragmatic measures, bridging gaps between local and provincial institutions, and filling the loopholes may surely help the country. This answer elaborates on the causes and impacts of bad governance in Pakistan and its way forward.
The crisis of good governance has pushed the country into several other social evils, such as corruption, lack of accountability, crime, and injustice. Different reports and analyses have confirmed that there has been an increase in bad governance in Pakistan in recent years. According to Transparency International Report 2020, Pakistan has been ranked 124 out of 180 countries with a score of 31. Despite many efforts of the National Accountability Bureau and other accountability agencies in recovering billions of rupees in the last two years, the increase in the Corruption Index of Pakistan (CIP) is shocking and alarming. The government has to improve its performance in all its institutions.
The crisis of good governance in Pakistan has impacted the polity multidimensionally. It has increased the political influence in administrative institutions; as a result, the meritocracy could not grow in the country. Today, thousands of youngsters are unemployed because of the illicit and unfair allocations of the officers at the higher and authoritative designations. The impact of bad governance has such a ripple effect that with the socio-economic decline of the polity, injustice, crime, corruption, and political polarisation have also increased. Owning to bad governance, personnel at the authoritarian designations act as a termite for the country. Their inept, inefficient and immature policies result in worthless and substandard policies. Thus, no country can make its way to prosperity in the long run unless good governance is achieved.
The paramount cause of bad governance in Pakistan is political instability. With the dominance of political polarisation culture in the state, no political party supports the idea or policy drawn by the other. Consequently, the state policies couldn’t be implemented in time, and unfortunately, the country has to suffer due to this myopic approach of the political parties. Aside from the political instability, the country has suffered because of the shady nature of accountability. Lack of accountability, along with the public’s apathetic nature, has given the criminals the courage to do illicit actions. The absence of vigilant and organized civil societies has discouraged accountability to a great extent. Moreover, political expediencies are free from accountability because they formed parliamentary committees during their regime to help them slip from punishments. For instance, Public Account Committees of the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies rarely inquires against the complaint of their officials. To this picture must be added that the overlapping jurisdiction of different accountability agencies has benefited the corrupt factors. Thus, numerous factors have contributed to bad governance in Pakistan.
To enhance governance in Pakistan following steps may help the state to combat the bad governance:
- A more frequent and flawless coordination system should be built amongst the subjects of government: federal, provincial, and local government.
- A proper and efficient mechanism of access to information is a need of accountability agencies. With the proper information collection, hundreds of culprits can be brought to their exemplary end.
- The institutions must also analyze the loopholes in different laws so that the opportunities for corruption and other social evils are halted or minimized.
- The public’s awareness about their social and political right can craft a civilized society, to which the politicians and government institutions would be accountable for any wrongdoing.
- Enhancing the institutionalized policymaking process would be fulfilling public demands and needs.
Such policies are always overwhelmed by the public since it is formed for their interests. Last but not least empowerment of local government would help the masses to gain power and a democratic setup. As aptly said by Abraham Lincoln, “Democracy is for the people, by the people, and through the people”.
It is vivid from past experiences that governance has suffered crucially in Pakistan because of the directionless and nomadic political environment. It would be naive to assume that the battle for good governance is about to be won, but at least there is a serious battle taking place. Not so long ago, any attempt to build a campaign against corruption, unaccountability, and transparency would have been seen as a case of hopeless romanticism. Pakistan’s governance has never met all indicators of governance. Thus, Pakistan needs to strive hard to stand amongst the countries enjoying good governance.
Today, millions of people are jolted by bad governance, one of the biggest challenges faced by the country, in one way or another. Owning to lack of accountability, transparency, and public responsiveness – the socio-economic fabric of the state is distorted. As discussed above, the menace of bad governance can be dealt with effectively by taking proper and pragmatic steps. By and large, to gain the dividends of good governance – the country has to surmount the leviathan of bad governance. The outcome of good governance has a crucial bearing on the prospects for a more constructive influence of – and help from – the state in the lives of Pakistanis.
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