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Charter Of Demands Ahead of General Elections In Pakistan – Citizen’s Magna Carta

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Good governance is the vital ingredient of a prosperous nation. It nourishes a culture of reform, effective implementation, proactive decision-making, just rewards for virtuous behavior, a consistent rhythm of progress, and unwavering accountability

Pakistan is set for upcoming elections on Feb 8th, 2024. In this regard, all political parties are working for manifesto development and the promises to undertake in front of the People of Pakistan. One of the key areas that has needed the utmost attention since the creation of Pakistan is good governance.

Good governance is the vital ingredient of a prosperous nation. It nourishes a culture of reform, effective implementation, proactive decision-making, just rewards for virtuous behavior, a consistent rhythm of progress, and unwavering accountability. The countries where good governance is exercised, its impact on economic and social development is undeniable. It not only cultivates healthy and vocal societies but also strengthens the foundations of democracy.

Keeping in mind the good governance model, we are presenting a few key demands in the form of a charter for the major political parties of Pakistan including the stakeholders who play an active and important role in the implementation of internal and external policies. We can term it as Citizen’s Magna Carta. The salient features of the charter of demands are as follows:

new-governance-model-for-pakistan

Foreign Policy:

  • Pursuit of a hedging strategy to avoid entangling in global binary politics yet maintaining/ protecting vital international partnerships.
  • Economy-centric foreign policy/ diplomacy seeking new markets, export promotion, geographic/ digital connectivity striving for stronger regional priorities, and attempting their best to expand our rich cultural inroads.
  • Design effective parliamentary oversight to monitor foreign policy and its operators through House/Senate select committees. Determined and consistent positions are required on prime national interests and matters of ideological/ territorial sovereignty.
  • Institutions of diplomacy be cleansed from imperial legacies, political polarization, cartelization, incompetence, inefficiency, nepotism, etc. through structural/ organizational reform, system overhaul, and modernization. Revision of hiring standards and introduction of human resource carrier planning to produce a more capable &competent generation of future diplomats and staff.

National Security:

  • State of Pakistan’s National Security goals are defined along with our National Defense Strategy to achieve them. The nation should be taken into confidence by passing it in an in-camera joint parliament session. Undertaking may also be shared by the state organizations to avoid indulgence in any international/ domestic strategic dilemmas.
  • Good military balance be ensured against adversaries given a realistic threat analysis. Interoperability with the strategic partners is planned and practiced. Continues, development of military-industrial complex and adoption of contemporary marketing approaches to enhance defense exports.
  • Territorial security domains such as conventional/ kinetic, missile, robotic, cyber, electronic, electromagnetic, artificial intelligence, and active psychological warfare be adopted/ improved.
  • A well-trained, equipped, fed, and paid professional armed forces willing to undertake national defense missions for territorial, nuclear, anti-terrorism, and internal security directly and economic, energy, water, food, cyber, environment, infrastructure security, etc. indirectly.
  • Seamless trans-frontier/ cis-frontier intelligence be ensured through our state agencies.

Legal Reforms:

  • Code of conduct compliance for BARS to produce quality lawyers, minimize political influence, and avoid law malpractices.
  • Lawyers’ educational credentials to be scrutinized.
  • Legal injunction system (Legal stay or restraint order) to be eliminated or made strictly time-bound with no extension.
  • Judges and lawyers must be made accountable by applying a yearly target-based SMART goal approach and performance must be measured on the KPI dashboard.
  • Quality control and digitalization are to be introduced in legal reforms.

Education:

  • Skills, vocational, and research innovation-based education to be promoted
  • Sports must be introduced/promoted as extracurricular activities
  • Indigenous Pakistani education system needs to be introduced to promote the uniqueness of Pakistani culture along with the Decommercialization of educational institutions via regulations.
  • Quality control in education is to be established to monitor quality education.
  • Upgrade universities to international standards by introducing R&D culture & annexing them with major defense industrial complexes & major local manufacturers.
  • Teacher selection & induction criteria must be transparent & scrutinized.

Employment:

  • Encourage sports activities in the country to prompt sports goods & manufacturers could invest further to create jobs (Develop sports infrastructure at schools’ level).
  • Focus on skills and vocational-based human resources development and sending abroad.
  • Improve minimum wage for a modest earning lifestyle by amending labor laws
  • Develop a rewarding culture, and announce tax benefits for industries working in Pakistan.
  • Encourage and promote local manufacturing in Pakistan.

Social Development:

  • Equal opportunities including healthcare, education, and shelter to all People of Pakistan along with fundamental rights must be given within limits and boundaries.
  • Revamp the undeveloped areas (Kachhi Abadis) and provide basic needs like cleanliness of the streets and roads, repair and upgrade basic structure so that unprivileged areas could be developed and even preserved for heritage.
  • Inclusion & standardization for all projects across the country like Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi etc.
  • Transparency is to be ensured via the Right person for the right job and enhance digitalization vision across all government domains.
  • Local government capabilities be developed for performance & revenue generation/tax collection.
  • Skills development for women to ensure their financial independence at the local body level.

Health Reforms:

  • Health screening system to be revamped for Data collection, compliance awareness, and healthcare audits with Monitoring incidences and prevalences.
  • Introduce quality control, digitalization, and R&D culture with effective health policy.
  • Pharma industries need to be regulated for local standard medicines.
  • Build health HUBS countrywide with experts employed at HUBS for data collection and Promote Telemedicine via health HUBS.
  • Federal bodies are appointed with powers through legislation to curb the violators of the entire health sector.
  • Helpline number to be made available to the public.
  • Restore Union Council Level Medical Dispensaries with free consultation and medicines to shed the load of hospitals.
  • Compulsory 2 years rural or 5 years urban service for new medical grads before they quit.
  • Health tourism infrastructure to be promoted.

Governance:                        

  • Follow high-character community service-type leadership models on how to lead and govern to serve and deliver for the betterment of people.
  • Reforms and revamping are needed in Civil service, Police, and Judiciary.
  • Enforce E-Government/digitalization, accountability, coordination, implementation, regular rhythm, key performance indicators & standardization across execution functions.
  • Devoted, qualified, and expert people be appointed in all domains/functions.
  • Prevent leakages in the system (smuggling, Power theft, and tax evasion).
  • Build up a district unit model as a pilot. Set plan and governing TORs, honest experts, and coordinators to be appointed. Rhythm with coordinators and execution teams and monitor KPI.
  • Artificial intelligence to be utilized for better governance; Industry 4.0 (next industrial revolution)

Col ( R) Maqbool Malik  and Dr. Ahsan Rajput contributed to this report.

Written by A Hafiz, published on January 9, 2024 in The Islamabad Telegraph. https://theislamabadtelegraph.com/2024/01/charter-of-demands-in-pakistan/

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Anees Hafiz

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