Political Reform

PRIME MINISTER Imran Khan has announced that his government intends to pursue electoral reforms in order to ensure that in future elections are not disputed and winners and losers both accept the result. In this respect, he has said he plans to introduce electronic voting for citizens including those residing overseas.

In addition, he has voiced a strong preference to have Senate elections by show of hands instead of the secret ballot that is currently the method. The prime minister correctly diagnosed that secret balloting is facilitating corruption and vote-buying, and he reminded the people that his party had expelled parliamentarians from its ranks who had been identified as having sold their vote. However, the prime minister hoped that the opposition would cooperate with the government in legislating these reforms as the government did not have the required parliamentary numbers to push them through.

The health care system in Pakistan is beset with numerous problems – structural fragmentation, gender
insensitivity, resource scarcity, inefficiency and lack of functional specificity and accessibility. Faced
with a precarious economic situation characterized by heavy external debt and faltering productivity,
Pakistan’s room to maneuver with health sector reform is quite limited. Although the recently
announced Devolut ion Plan provides a window of opportunity, it must go beyond and introduce farreaching changes in the health and social sectors. Regionalization of health care seivices in an
integrated manner with functional specificity for each level of care is an essential step. Integration of
current vertical programs within the framework of a need-based comprehensive primary health care
system is another necessary step. Most importantly, fostering a public-private partnership to share the
cost of basic primary health care and public health services must be an integral part of any reform.
Pakistan must also make the health care system more gender sensitive through appropriate training
programs for the service providers along with wide community participation in decision-making
processes. Relevant WHONVorId BankJUNDP developed tools could be extremely useful in this
respect.

he reforms promise a uniform education system across Pakistan (the exception being O/A levels systems). Introduction of a uniform curriculum throughout the country is a welcome step as it would mean better textbooks and good education, providing an even playing field to all students. The reforms aim to streamline religious education as well by improving their current curricula. Under the reforms, the madrassahs will teach the normal educational curriculum alongside the Holy Quran and related religious books.

The reforms will start from class 1 and gradually make its way to the college level. The Education Minister Mr Shafqat Mehmood said that same books will be taught in all educational institutions at primary level by 2021. By 2023 the uniform education system will be implemented up to matric as well as college levels. The education minister clarified that the government would do “necessary legislation” to implement this new education system in the country.

All this sounds good, but the task does not appear to be that simple and raises several questions. Currently, there are several education boards in Pakistan including Federal and Provincial Boards. Does the proposed system intend to merge all education boards and control all educational related activities through one mega Board? If so, how would it bypass the 18th amendment our Constitution which has devolved the subject of education to the Provinces? Furthermore, the proposed reforms aim to introduce concept-based education, but would the teachers in the less privileged schools, who are accustomed to “ratta system” be able to cope with the conceptual education system? Do they have the capability and training for that?

Learning from experience, the new curriculum should be well thought out, error-free and updated on the basis of new research especially in the field of science and technology, which is an ever-changing dynamic area. Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that one learns faster and better if taught in the mother tongue. Unfortunately, education has never been a priority of the governments in the past, which is evident from the meagre funds allocated to it (which also do not reach the students fully for the reasons known to all). The Constitution of Pakistan binds us to adopt Urdu (which is as easily understood by all people of Pakistan as their respective mother tongues) across the country for all official correspondence, and hence inevitably education. The honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan has time and again reminded the governments to fulfil this responsibility but to no avail. So while introducing the new education system, the government would do well by making Urdu as the medium of education. This will enable hundreds of thousands of talented youngsters to get educated, who now stay uneducated due to the language barrier erected against them by the English medium of education.

At the turn of the century, Pakistan had the highest GDP per capita when compared with India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. Twenty years later, it is at the bottom of the group. Political upheaval, a violent insurgency fed by the war in Afghanistan, and the inability of successive governments to carry out reforms are to blame for this decline. Today, a polarized political environment and elite intrigue among civilian, judicial, and military institutions has made sustainable economic growth and reforms that much more unlikely. The COVID-19 pandemic has further sharpened the challenge.

Pakistan’s economy is shifting towards import-substitution industrialization via supporting the domestic businesses and export-led sectoral development. Stabilization measures of current Govt are yielding results and their results will be visible in the coming years. Macro stabilization and success on external sector are evident from the economic stats.