‘Grand National Dialogue | Interactive Session: Pakistan’s Political System and Governance’

Electoral reforms, vibrant democratic nurseries critical for political system and good governance: Grand National Dialogue

Improving the electoral system, empowering local governments, and revitalizing democratic nurseries – local governments, student and trade unions, etc. – are imperative to ensure the quality of representation and efficient working of legislators in parliament. This would lead to better governance, provided the instructions and guidelines given by the Constitution of Pakistan are followed in letter and spirit at higher as well as grassroots levels.

These insights emerged during the third phase of the Grand National Dialogue on ‘Pakistan’s Political System and Governance’, held with students at the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad, by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad, in collaboration with Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and NUST’s Department of Government & Public Policy on December 16, 2022.

The youth interaction session was addressed by Khalid Rahman, chairman, IPS, Dr. Syed Tahir Hijazi, former vice-chancellor, Muslim Youth University, and former member (governance), Planning Commission of Pakistan, and Farzana Yaqoob, co-founder, Mantaq, and former minister of AJ&K, while Sana Maqbool, broadcast journalist at PTV World, moderated the session.

Khalid Rahman pointed out that political system and governance are related terms; however, it is difficult to sequence them as cause and effect because each seems to equally depend on the other. This chicken-and-egg situation depicts that work is needed to be done in every dimension of governance and legislation by adopting reformative measures and the correct mindset.

He further mentioned that, in order to bring reformative changes for better governance, it is significant to dispense clarity to four fundamental questions: Who has the power? Who makes the decisions and how? To what extent the stakeholders are taken on board? How effective is the system of accountability, i.e. reward and punishment?

Particularly significant to this is introducing reforms to the electoral process and legislative system of the country with an aim to ensure proportionate representation in parliament, competent decision-makers in the legislature, inclusivity of all stakeholders, and accountability for decisions and actions.

Pointing out the flaws of inherited policies and governance models, Tahir Hijazi stressed that in order to fast-track the delivery of services, the need of the hour is to redefine the roles of people in governance, bring proficient and skillful people as decision-makers, and hold everyone answerable through a system of accountability.

In this regard, he argued that the youth have to play a prominent role in the future and, as an asset, they must be trained and schooled in politics, electoral procedures, and decision-making. This way the future leadership of Pakistan will originate from these educated, informed, and cognizant youth.

In addition to these aspects, there is also the context of culture behind every governance success and failure, stated Farzana Yaqoob.

She further pointed out that the governance system is centered on chaos management since Pakistan’s inception and has not moved towards planned development and cohesion.

An important factor, as highlighted by her, within this context of culture, is the elite capture of government, even at the grassroots levels, which must be eliminated by including more people in the decision-making process. Talking about the role of youth, she also stressed that youngsters must be given exposure to political culture. Moreover, women’s representation must be improved, however, they should also be more proactive, she added.