Desperate need for institutional reform

EDITORIAL: The government must explain the reasons for the country’s disgraceful fall to third-worst among 142 countries in terms of law and order in the World Justice Project’s (WJP’s) annual survey.

WJP’s Rule of Law Index placed only Mali and Nigeria below Pakistan in terms of law, order and security in its 2024 report, which shows how the government continues to fail to control crime, protection from armed conflicts, and the use of violence to resolve civil disputes – the three factors that figure in WJP’s Order and Security Index.

Yet this is just what is to be expected when rejuvenated insurgences and entrenched secessionist tendencies chip away at the country from both ends and the security establishment is always behind the curve in enforcing order. It seems the lessons from the last assault on the state, TTP’s insurgency that cost Pakistan more than 80,000 innocent lives, have yet to be properly learnt.

But it’s not just the border conflict that is the problem. The last few years have seen an alarming spike in crime, with a police force increasingly accused of being overly politicised unable to put a lid on it anywhere in the country.

These problems have lingered and only grown for years, finally pushing us to the very bottom of the list of countries able to maintain law and order inside their borders. Yet there’s still nothing to show a reset or even any urgency in Islamabad.

And more and more people are coming to the realisation that political parties leverage processes and institutions of democracy only for their own personal and petty interests, not those of the people as the constitution demands of them.

Reports such as the WJP’s prove how desperately Pakistan needs institutional reform. Indeed, the country’s performance was poor in all eight areas that WJP used to rank countries – constraints on government powers (103), corruption (120), open government (106), fundamental rights (125), regulatory enforcement (127), civil justice (128) and criminal justice (98). It turns out that of six South Asian countries surveyed, Pakistan joined neighbour Afghanistan right at the bottom of the index.

All this ought to suffice to jolt the government and all top institutions in Islamabad. Yet if the past is anything to go by, it might prompt a statement or two about the need and indeed inevitability of reforms and then it will be back to business as usual. All political parties realise the need for reforms, of course.

That is why they harp on about them before and for a short time after each election. But then, when they are confronted by the enormity of the challenge – since all major institutions are in utter shambles – all such promises quickly fizzle out till the end of the cycle.

Surely, things cannot go on as before. The security situation is alarming, the economy is collapsing, crime is on the rise and the common man does not have access to ready justice.

What is more, Pakistan also boasts some of the world’s worst population, poverty and literacy statistics. To reverse these trends and institute necessary reforms in a Herculean task; one that will require complete commitment and coordination among all arms and pillars of the state.

People wonder, though, whether such dedication can be expected from a political elite embroiled in an ugly fight for the perks and privileges of power. It’s a shame that politicians who claim to bend over backwards to win elections and represent the people care only for their own narrow interests when they do come to power. It’s for such reasons that trends identified in the WJP’s report have worsened so strongly over the years.

One can only hope against hope that the future will be different from the past.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024