Elections 2018: Next Step Towards Consolidation of Democracy in Pakistan

The 2018 elections are now held, with somewhat majority of one political party i.e. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in national assembly and two provincial assemblies. The elections, with some reservations and contestation from other political parties, are now declared as better than 2013 elections, especially with reference to the proper management and conduct of elections. This brings in the start of another, the third consecutive, tenure of political government, although not much smooth transition. The challenges of the political government (PTI) are yet to emerge – much more than anticipated by many. Most of these are linked to the high rather unrealistic expectations of the citizens – especially of youth, shrinking democratic space, intrusion of other state institutions – especially during interim government, and weak governance, institutional and service delivery arrangements.

In wake of these challenges, the Government – among many other things – needs to fix at-least these five priority areas.

Firstly, manage citizens’ expectations: It would not be all goody – especially when the Government would plan to achieve: redistribution of wealth and resources; and, accountability of state institutions. The governments need to take unpopular decisions – which often annoy the elite. And this elite captures the major power hubs and are also the ones who builds the public perceptions. The not to offend this elite is only through maintaining status–quo which in the short-run is fine but often leads to increased frustration and dissatisfaction of masses in the long-run. Given this, the Government would need to continue its engagement with the citizens to secure their trust on its actions.

Secondly, expand democratic space by creating conditions for more robust, open and independent media, civic-society and citizenry: The media and civil society are often perceived as institutions which always challenge governments and its actions – what so ever are. This is somewhat true – but they are part of the larger political echo system, in which they do represent citizens and perform accountability of state institutions. At the same time, they are the ones who help governments communicate their strategies, actions and intensions to build the trust of the citizens – provided they are neutral, capable and honest. In this situation, the major challenge for the Government/ PTI would be to help these actors i.e. media, civic society, citizens, grow, expand and build to perform their constructive role in the larger democratic space. The options of further controlling, managing and depressing these actors is no more an option - at-least for the elected government.

Thirdly, control interference of other state institutions: In the absence of effective government and parliamentary institutions, the other non-democratic/ state institutions become more active. This remained the case in Pakistan. Now with the establishment of political government, these state institutions would need to revert back to their constitutional mandate. The Government would also need to put a lot of effort to regain its constitutional power, both by ascertaining its role and by proving that it can deliver its mandate. The space for other state institutions to intrude are often created by weak parliamentary performance, poor governance, confrontational politics and citizens-state trust deficit. All these fronts need to be properly managed by political governments/ PTI to restrain entry of other state institutions.  

Fourthly, leverage, mobilize and empower local governments: The poor service delivery leads to dissatisfaction of citizens from the political governments and overall democratic system/ processes. The 2018 elections proved lack of importance for traditional constituency engagement – rather greater importance was given by citizens to political party manifesto/commitments and quality of leadership. The size of the constituencies also increased – making it unmanageable for politicians to represent their constituencies in a tradition way. This inevitable requires parliamentarians to represent their constituencies in parliament/ assemblies through policy and oversight and leave the role of service delivery to local governments. This is an interesting time in the history of Pakistan – as politicians have less direct obligations/ commitments towards citizens in their constituencies and more towards their actual role of representation, legislation and policy oversight in the parliament/ provincial assemblies. This creates the need to further empower, trust, delegate the mandate, authorities and responsibilities to local governments.

Fifthly, engage with opposition: The political government, in power, has not been able to secure simple majority, at both national level and in Punjab. This means, strong opposition in the parliament/ provincial assemblies – especially after 18th Amendment. With such a strong opposition, the Government would not have the liberty to take policy actions by its own and would certainly require ownership and agreement of parties’ in opposition to introduce legal reform/ legislate and perform the policy oversight function.  Given this, the Government now needs to much more effectively engage with opposition to get its work going – and this would also mean sharing the success and attributing the good performance of Government with the other political parties in parliament/ assemblies.   

By: Khurram Jilani

Independent Development Professional

Islamabad, Pakistan