Governance: Role of Parliament and institutions

Sitara-e-Shujat, Nashan-e-Imtiaz

It is a big question as to how the national institutions and the parliament can play active role to implement the rule of law and improve the governance. The people of Pakistan are worried as our beloved country is passing through worst crisis and nation is witnessing political polarisation and bad governance. The parliament is failing to deliver and it may go in the history as a rubber stamp with hardly any initiative taken for the betterment of a common man. The state is “in the state of utter confusion” and country is directionless without adequate required policies. People need hope whereas the national future has been mortgaged before the IMF. Many present ministers are of the view that the govt is helpless before mighty IMF and the West including FATF. The individual interests have taken over the national interests in our present system. The country is being run on day-to-day basis without any solid long-term policies.

The state is utterly failing to protect the rights of a common man. The miseries of people are increasing by every passing day. A common man has been expecting some relief since long but every successive govt failed to deliver. Now, the price-hike has crushed the public even more and their cries can be heard in the streets of every city.

The present ruling party had unrealistically raised the hopes of the voters which could not be fulfilled due to a deteriorating economy. The people have seen the drop scene of their high hopes. Political polarisation is at its peak and the Parliament House looks like a wrestling ring. Now, our female parliamentarians have also jumped in this ring. We hear the sounds of slaps and abuses instead of voice of a common man. Let us seize the culture of indecency followed both by govt and opposition in the parliament. I think we need to demonstrate political maturity with a pragmatic and result-oriented approach in the parliament.

This continued confusion, ineffective parliament and non-serious govt may bring some serious setbacks to the country. Hence, we all have to think about how to set a doable path to steer the nation out of crisis with national unity. The economy is sliding down with no sign of recovery; foreign policy is suffering because of our international isolation; IMF and FATF hounds are pushing us to be defaulter and both Afghan and Pak Taliban (once called the children of Pakistan) have joined hands and their nefarious activities against Pakistan duly engineered by India and the West through Afghan soil. The removal of fence at Pak-Afghan border shows the intent of Afghan Taliban and the TTP. While we are facing numerous internal and external challenges, the govt seems to be confused and it is not coming up with an economic recovery plan and foreign policy to overcome these potential setbacks. The government must act wisely, should bring its proposed plans before the parliament and ask for collective national wisdom on the proposed national policies. The failure of our successive policies can be well judged from the data given below as we have not acted to correct our various public domains.

The data reflects poor governance and poor management of state affairs.

Our rupee has fallen to 187 to a dollar during the present regime and it is likely to slide more after the mini-budget while price-hike will rise further. Unemployment rate has gone up to 5pc. Underemployment is also growing and return of Pak workers from abroad has further increased unemployment.

Growth rate went down from 5.8pc in 2018 to 0.5pc in 2020. Govt must watch to avoid fudged figures as this kind of fake statistical data will be harmful for future estimates.

Our population has increased from 212.2 million to 225.18 million and there has been no policy to control it. Also while the population is increasing the resources are shrinking, hence we need to create a balance.

We all need to worry as total foreign debt has risen from $61 billion to $116.3 billion. I am not adding our liabilities that have risen because of various bonds in the international market used to raise loans through the private banks. We have local debt in rupees increased from Rs24.95 trillion in 2018 to Rs39.9 trillion in 2021. This is our great economy. But, the govt still claims that there is no inflation. The printing of currency is one of the biggest sources of inflation.

The poverty rate has increased from 4.4pc in 2018 to 39.2pc. It is highly undesirable increase as we are leading other countries in South Asia in poverty rate. Bangladesh has become the role model of economic growth and its textile industries have grabbed the world market. It will be shocking for the public to know that investment and expertise have flown from Pakistan to Bangladesh as the investors find Bangladesh more investor-friendly as compared to Pakistan. Similarly, the large-scale investment has flown to Sri Lanka also.

In 2019, infant mortality rate in Pakistan was at about 55.7 deaths per 1,000 live births due to malnutrition and it is increasing continuously. What else could be expected in a country with 39.2pc poverty rate. The funds committed for development are on the decrease and hence the development will go slow in coming years.

The above data reflects our non-professional and incompetent approach to handle our national affairs. I have mentioned only few areas of public domain. You will see similar frustrating negative data in other public and private sectors as well.

Will the govt make a study to identify its mistakes and control the deteriorating situation not repeating the mistakes which are creating negative statistical trends?

In fact, some of the economic and administrative indicators show inabilities of our past and present govts. We need to think seriously if the present system is itself a problem or we are incompetent to give good governance to our country. We must also study some other viable way of governance.

It is unfortunate that our authorities and political pandits either do not understand the meaning of a borrowed economy or they prefer to adopt the easy path of loaning to run the governmental and national affairs which has caused deep crises.

The state of confusion is widespread due to incompetency, inability, non-nationalistic approach, non-serious attitude, no accountability and immature attitude of govt and opposition in the parliament.

Nations do not survive with lip service as we need practical steps to give relief to the common man. We are very good in blame game which is equally applicable on leaders of both govt and opposition.

There have been a number of joint sessions. But during the present term of parliamentarians, these sessions gave no benefit to a common man in terms of law or policies except TA/DA for the parliamentarians and benefits to FATF & IMF. These joint sessions ended by passing some pre-written resolutions manipulated behind the scene, whereas the parliamentarians were not free to express their views.

The joint session is for some selected parliamentarians to speak as per the set agenda and rest of the parliamentarians are there just to sit and listen in violation of all democratic norms. Such non-mandatory resolutions end up in creation of ill perception of the parliament among the public.

A question arises why the defined democratic norms are not being observed in the parliament and who is responsible as it has muted its voice on major national issues. I hope the parliament will come out of the muted mode and do something for the rule of law and for the better governance.

The writer is former Interior Minister of Pakistan, author of 7 books, Ex-Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Chairman Institute of Research & Reforms (IRR) Islamabad. He can be reached at: rmalik1212@gmail.com, Twitter @Senrehmanmalik