Remedies for Obstacles to Good Governance in Pakistan

The founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah envisioned Pakistan to be an Islamic welfare state. The 1973 Constitution of the country also declares Pakistan as an Islamic Welfare state. However, successive governments have failed in implementing good governance in the country for one or the other reason. In this article, I discuss the remedies for obstacles to good governance in Pakistan.

Remedies for obstacles to good governance in Pakistan

Empowerment of law enforcing institutions:

One of the roadblocks in the way towards the establishment of good governance in Pakistan is weak institutions. Influential individuals bypass the institutions responsible for the check and balance in the system. Similarly, the successive governments often have used the institutions for their own interests. Given these points, I would suggest strengthening institutions rather than individuals as one of the remedies for obstacles to good governance in Pakistan.  In other words, to ensure good governance it is important for institutions like National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the judiciary, etc. to act independently of any political or any other pressure while dealing the cases of corruption, crimes, etc.

Empowerment of political institutions

One of the remedies for obstacles to good governance can be the empowerment of democratic and political institutions i.e. election commission, political parties, and parliament.  These institutions should work within their constitutional ambit instead of being used for any vested interest. For this reason, they should keep away from interfering in each other’s domain. Furthermore, the political system will become strong in long as a result of the involvement of people in politics and government formation.

Access to public record and procedures

Requests made by media and citizens should be provided enabling the public to access official public records. This will provide transparency to the process enabling citizens to take specific actions depending on the process of their request.

 Community policing system

A community policing system should be introduced and supported. This will inculcate a sense of ownership and responsibility in the minds and hearts of the local police to deliver o their own people. Loot and robbing, mistreatment and extrajudicial actions and extortion by the police itself can be reduced to a greater extent through the promotion of community policing.

 Digitalization

The government should introduce an effective electronic monitoring system of service delivery.  Cases of corruption and fraud usually take place in handing taking. Public officials take bribes by being away from the offices and departments. A computerized system of checking the data can help to verify the work being performed by public officials.