Crumbling Institutions
Strong and Vibrant institutions build a healthy and a Democratic state where some injustices can always occur but large majority of people enjoy rule of law and basic facilities of life. Look at our neighborhood India who despite contributing 33% to world poor, stories of rampage corruption, falling very high on TIP corruption index, more than half of their population living below poverty line, enjoying uninterrupted democracy and continuation of system, suffers from long hours of Load Shedding unlike Pakistan where democracy already been interrupted four times but with all these injustices in India one talk about Inquilab, Tsunami March, Dictators etc. Do we ever wonder why it is so? The answer to the question is very simple that they developed institutions which work independently and freely without any strings attached to their performance, just look at their CBR, can raid any influential figures house anytime and nobody dare argue with their power, their election commission work independently without being tool of a particular party or Mafia No one ever raised an eyebrow on their performance, you hardly see any Dhandli rhetoric after elections.. Their Parliament can question people which is almost a punishable act in our land of pure, their court's hardly been accused of tilting towards different groups, list is endless.
Strong and Vibrant institutions build a healthy and a Democratic state where some injustices can always occur but large majority of people enjoy rule of law and basic facilities of life. Look at our neighborhood India who despite contributing 33% to world poor, stories of rampage corruption, falling very high on TIP corruption index, more than half of their population living below poverty line, enjoying uninterrupted democracy and continuation of system, suffers from long hours of Load Shedding unlike Pakistan where democracy already been interrupted four times but with all these injustices in India one talk about Inquilab, Tsunami March, Dictators etc. Do we ever wonder why it is so? The answer to the question is very simple that they developed institutions which work independently and freely without any strings attached to their performance, just look at their CBR, can raid any influential figures house anytime and nobody dare argue with their power, their election commission work independently without being tool of a particular party or Mafia No one ever raised an eyebrow on their performance, you hardly see any Dhandli rhetoric after elections.. Their Parliament can question people which is almost a punishable act in our land of pure, their court's hardly been accused of tilting towards different groups, list is endless.
So question is what went wrong in our country? Why couldn't we build institutions leading to a dynamic and spirited society? One argument may be that we were struck with Marshall Laws decades after decades so democracy were never allowed to take it's root and there was not enough time to assemble efficient systems? Yes dictators and Kingdoms thrive and feed on week systems, example are in abundant in our Muslim countries Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Saudia etc but weak systems have finally taken it's tool on them, mostly are struck with civil war in their countries, hundreds of Muslims dying daily, reaping the rewards of their rulers, stuck in a battle which they never wanted, going trough a turmoil and agonising era of destruction!!!!
Now let's come back to our country, let's not talk about the unprecedented damage caused by respective dictators or horrendous last five years of civilian democracy, let's talk about last 13 month's of this government, did they even remotely tried to lay foundation of institutions? The answer is loud and clear NO !!!
Now let me explain why I say that this government is no different than the previous rulers as far as building institutions despite the claims that there are no mega scandals in last 13 months as we have seen in last era, despite claims of initiating mega projects which this country never witnessed before, even if we admit to these fact but does this made a common man's life more easier? The answer is again a big NO.
Just look around how many institutions are either run by a non-existent Head or very least an Acting Head or Head with political affiliation? So how on earth a sane person can even remotely think of building a institution? Election Commissioner resigned soon after the GE, Where is the new chairman? Had this government acted promptly and appointed an honest head under newly amended constitution, they might have averted the crisis they are facing right now from opposition Azadi March? But more importantly they would've laid foundation of a institution, the permanent chairman would've got ample time to fix this mess before the next GE. Similarly Nadra head was removed in a bizarre fashion, again a key person that would've avoided the mess the government is in right now. Let's suppose for a minute that he was rightly removed but where the hell is the new Nadra Chairman? Chairman PCB post has become a laughing stock in fact let me put it that way an embarrassment for the whole Nation, Key members of ICC snub our Chairman during the meetings.. The post has become a social media joke in Pakistan. Another example is Chairman PEMRA, Last few months we have seen the worst of Pakistan Media, different Media house's hurling allegations against each other of bizarre nature even the charges of blasphemy against few channels. Now you honestly tell me if we had a Strong and prudent Pemra body with a honest and upright chairman heading it, most of this dirt and filth against each other would've been stopped from the very beginning had there been a powerful PEMRA body headed by a strong willed chairman and culprits would've been punished there and then. Countless examples can be quoted here, boards of Pepco still not complete, different organisations waiting for their heads, just recently State Bank head appointed while all important SECP Chairman post still vacant.
Now let me compare this ineptness with few organisations where heads been appointed timely, now they are giving good results though still far far away from excellence, examples are PTA Chairman who just recently completed a successful 3/4 G auction, not a finger been raised on the process in fact every newspaper and critic was appreciative of the effort. Other example is Head of Privatisation Zubair Ahmad who has done a remarkable remarkable job, kick starting the privatisation after years of delay, completing highly successful initial transactions of UBL, PPL in fact fetching higher prices than the base price asked by Government. Now planning to privatise 9 different organisation, this year expected to fetch 2.5-3 billion dollar money to National Exchequer. Similarly Railway Minster assembled an excellent team with efficient Railway Chairman and Board Of Directors all from Railway we can witness the results, revenue touched 25.5 billion rupees in 2013-14.
So in a nutshell Germany and Japan rose from ashes after War when their countries were brought down to the ground by madness of War, we must ponder, Why Germans became the largest economy of Europe? Why Japan is second largest economy of Asia? Answer is very simple they have built efficient systems backed by robust institutions. Democratic rulers often complain about dictators interfering and derailing democracies but what they fail to understand that if not largely it is partly their fault as well they rule in a colonial fashion, never let institutions grow, never give them that freedom so they can work independently without strings and interference. Rulers must understand these institutions once built will automatically come to their rescue once dictators try to topple their regimes but at the same time a strong institution wouldn't be part of their corrupt practices so it's a knife edge our rulers sooner or latter had to decide the fate of this bruised and battered Nation which is a victim of successive dictatorial regimes and democratic regimes working in the mask of dictators!
