Administrative Reforms & Decentralization in Pakistan

Class Activity # 5
Administrative Reforms & Decentralization in Pakistan

Q1. In the current situation how present local government can play their role to combat existing crises?
Ans. The local government system plays a vital role in improving living standards of citizens because it
tends to be physically closer to those in need of development than the provincial and federal governments.
The importance of the local governments lies in the fact that these help to shape the development agenda
explaining the implication of government programmes to the people.
The purpose of local government is to provide an organized system where councilors exercise power and
ensure peace, order and good governance in their municipalities. As part of their duty, council officials are
expected to work towards improving social, economic, and environmental viability and sustainability for the
benefit of their communities. "Effective local governments ensure provision of overall quality of life for the
people of their communities."
The local government system is meant to be a link between the government and the people. It is widely
accepted at national and international level that local authorities are responsible for delivering a broad
range of services in relation to roads and traffic; planning; housing; economic and community development;
environment; recreation and amenity services; fire services and for maintaining the register of electors.
Moreover, because of its proximity to the people, the local governments are in a better position to ensure
that government policies translate into services that will automatically meet the needs of the people. They
have strong reservations about handing over financial matters to local authorities.
In all developed and democratic societies local governments are designed with the purpose of creating
order in ways that serve the general public democratically. Without a strong local government, the efforts of
the provincial and federal governments in the national development agenda are in vain.
Q2. Which efforts was done in the past to improve public service delivery and which efforts are required to
improve the efficiency of civil service in Pakistan?
Ans. In Pakistan, public service delivery has been marred by corruption, inefficiency and cumbersome red-
tapism since Pakistan’s independence in 1947. As per the Global Corruption Barometer released by
Transparency International in 2013, 75 percent of survey respondents in Pakistan paid a bribe to its land
services department.
To address the inefficiencies of public service delivery, successive governments have introduced several
reforms in the civil service, mostly backed by donor agencies such as the Department for International
Development, United Kingdom (DFID), the World Bank and the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID). By means of such funding, “E-khidmat” centers that provide multiple public services
under one roof to the public are being set up in the province of Punjab [
While these reforms represent incremental changes, their overall impact has been limited. The problem
here does not seem to be the absence of legislation, but the organizational culture of government agencies
that do not incentivize public office holders to provide services efficiently.
However, the problem is not the absence of regulations but the underlying normative and cultural factors.
To diagnose the problem, it is imperative to understand the organizational structure through which public
services are delivered in Pakistan.
A well-functioning and effective bureaucracy is fundamental to state capacity and imperative for meeting
the needs of its citizens. For any institution to perform well — be it state or non-state — a key factor is the
quality of its human resource. Investments in civil service training are thus critical to help build the state’s
capacity to deliver. Use of ICT and technology based smart solutions for service delivery calls for a civil
service that understands the dynamics of the new modes of governance. An expanding role of the private
sector and the recent popularity of public limited companies to undertake service delivery demands skills
beyond those delivered through conventional civil service trainings.
Providing competencies required at various levels to meet these challenges is the core function of civil
service training and capacity building exercises.

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Class Activity # 5

Administrative Reforms & Decentralization in Pakistan

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