AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CHALLENGE OF INSTITUTION-BUILDING IN PAKISTAN AND ITS IMPACT ON DEMOCRACY

Abstract

This article examines Pakistan’s inability to develop a strong, sustainable, and dynamic institutional framework that can not only effectively deal with societal issues but also provide a favorable environment to develop a functioning democratic system. Simply put, there exists a structural discontinuity in Pakistan that has hindered any meaningful movement towards achieving that highly desired goal—a strong and stable democratic polity. The situation is exacerbated by the existence of an institutional imbalance between major state institutions, i.e., the legislature, judiciary, executive, and military bureaucratic apparatus. All this has, in turn, led to the alienation of the smaller provinces as they feel underrepresented in important state institutions—that is tantamount to their effective exclusion from important decision-making bodies. Not only that, but there have also been governance issues in Pakistan, as state institutions have been consistently underperforming in providing public goods and services since 1947. This failure of state institutions has also provided an enabling environment for non-state actors, i.e., militant organisations, to get hold of some state territories and provide public services, such as administering swift justice and maintaining law and order. There is a need for holistic structural reforms in Pakistan, the aim of which is to put in place a well-functioning democratic system whereby people can articulate their aspirations and demands without fear or favour and where governance issues are effectively addressed at all levels of government. The overall aim of every reform effort needs to be to achieve a balance among different institutions and establish civilian supremacy. The study has employed the institutionalist theoretical framework in order to explore the issue of institutional imbalance in Pakistan. In terms of research methodology, this qualitative study is based both on primary sources (official policy documents, etc.) and secondary sources (books, articles, etc.).