Quality of democracy witnessed decline of four percent 2015-2016: PILDAT

The quality of democracy in Pakistan has witnessed a decline of 4 per cent from 2015 to 2016, revealed a report of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) issued here on Tuesday.
According to details, in 2016 country's quality of democracy has seen a slide of 4 percentage points from 2015. Instead of a steady transition towards improvement, democracy scores in Pakistan since 2013 show a somewhat tumultuous trend. As per the report, the quality of democracy was highest in 4 years at 54 per cent in 2013; the scores dipped 10 points in 2014 to 44 per cent, regained a little to 50 per cent in 2015 to have slipped again to 46 per cent at the end of year 2016.
According to the PILDAT's assessment, the quality of democracy is based on data analysis and scores compiled on the eleven parameters of the Pakistan-specific framework, an indigenously developed framework by the PILDAT to assess the quality of democracy. These parameters comprise performance of the Parliament and provincial legislatures; performance of national and provincial governments; performance of the unelected executive; performance of the judiciary and access to justice; performance of the media; institution of local governments; constitutional framework; democratic oversight of the security sector and the rule of law; electoral process and management; performance of political parties vis-à-vis democracy within as well as outside and performance of the civil society. The report stated that 'it was hoped that 2016 would be the year where Pakistan will move forward towards a positive democratic consolidation, but institutions were largely ineffective in resolving systemic issues and concerns such as Panama Leaks, elected government's inability to exercise its constitutional writ on national security and foreign policy domains, and it's evident failure and perhaps even reluctance in institutionalising consultative decision-making process. Amongst the problematic areas for Pakistan's democracy, an uninspiring performance by the country's Parliament and provincial assemblies continues. Especially, the National Assembly continues to be sidelined as a forum for debate, discussion and resolution of national issues. With regards to performance of national and provincial governments, a consistent lack of institutionalisation in decision-making has continued to be a problem in 2016 as well. For instance, consider the federal cabinet, which is supposed to meet at least 52 times in a year, but it could only manage to meet six times during 2016.
With regards to performance of the judiciary, PILDAT's assessment stated that "with regards to cases of a civil nature, there is a need to introduce various kinds of alternative dispute resolutions methods. On the other hand, with regards to criminal cases, there is a need to reform the criminal justice system, along with improving the investigation and prosecution services. However, 2016 passed without institution of major reforms in the legal process, despite the clock ticking on expiry of the 21st Constitutional Amendment."
With regards to local governments, it was observed that it is a positive development that they have been instituted across the country in 2016, except for in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK. However, it needs to be seen whether the powers guaranteed by Article 140-A of the Constitution have been devolved to the third tier as is the intent of the Constitution. This only seems to be the case in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, whereas the local government structures in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Cantonment Boards and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) remain a cause of concern with regards to their autonomy and devolution of powers.
In civil-military relations and democratic oversight of the security sector, 2016 saw the civil-military imbalance deepen further as the military leadership seemed to be taking the leading role on matters of national security and certain domains of Pakistan's foreign policy, with the elected government appearing to act as an auxiliary.
The internal democracy of political parties continued to be a liability for the quality of Pakistan's democracy during 2016 as well. Even though there were some positive developments to report, such as the intra-party elections of the PML-N, which were undertaken as more of a mechanised ritual and the establishment of the MQM as an indigenous party, rather than being a satellite run from London, no substantial improvement was noticed. In fact, a major setback was observed, particularly for the PTI, the party's cancellation of intra-party elections, allegedly because of its agitation campaign was a significant setback with regards to internal democracy of political parties in Pakistan. Therefore as noted before, the major political parties with significant electoral success, such as the PTI, PML-N and PPPP continued to be lengthened shadows of their leaders, with little or no institutionalised decision-making in place within the parties on important policy matters.
Regarding performance of the unelected executive /bureaucracy, it was noted that especially with regards to the civil service, including the police, that these crucial arms of functioning of state do not have the same independence that is observed in the case of the military. Unfortunately, no reforms were instituted in this regard during 2016.