Can you work with a broken 
system?
Is it broken or is it unworkable?
What can you do with an honest leader if the system won’t work?
These are the questions Pakistan needs to ask and find a workable solution to move forward. A review of the last 3 and a half years is interesting. Initiatives that succeeded were all new ones, something out of the existing well-worn and well-wheeled crooked routes of execution.
Let’s analyse the deliverables of this government in this tenure up to now.
I. The 10 billion tree initiative supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); a totally new and out-of-the-usual department of forestry effort, mostly planted through private small-sized nurseries, many run by women, which has given employment to more than 85000 people to date. The Bonn Challenge, the recent COP 26 in Glasgow, the World Economic Forum and numerous others recognised Pakistan’s leadership in combating climate change positively.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) praised Prime Minister Imran Khan and asked world leaders to follow the example of Pakistan to plant 10 billion trees.
II. The issue of health cards under the Sehat Sahulat Programme to the citizens of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and now Punjab. This programme will be rolled out to people in Gilgit Baltistan, Balochistan and Azad Kashmir soon. Funded through the federal and provincial governments, this works through insurance providers and executed both by public and private hospitals; it is a totally new initiative, giving a benefit of up to Rs 1,000,000 for in-patient stay and procedures to each family per year, a great boon for both rural and urban population who would have to beg and borrow, put their life’s earnings at stake for illness in the family; and a welfare initiative, superpowers like the US have been unable to execute for their citizens.
III. The Covid-19 pandemic and its completely unprecedented handling by Pakistan; one is amazed to think how a country with a broken, inadequate health system was able to manage the pandemic, prevent chaos and unrest on the streets through smart lockdowns that everyone thought were totally impractical. Talk shows, newspapers, social media and politicians could not stop detracting from the government’s policy of rejecting complete lockdowns; the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC), its system of tracking contacts, the testing capacity enhancement all across the country and finally the mammoth task of vaccination. More than 110 million doses of vaccines given in less than a year is difficult to believe in Pakistan; literally an army of people have been trained and employed to execute this task. Mostly young people and new to the workforce, but under strict supervision and accountability under the tight control of NCOC.
IV. The Ehsaas initiative runs 134 different programmes—for the first time a National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) has been completed. This is the basis of various programmes focused on the uplift of the poor, marginalised, women, disabled and orphans; the Ehsaas Emergency Cash programme which gave out 12000 rupees per family to 15 million families during the pandemic in 2020. The Ehsaas Kifalat programme identified 8 million families all across Pakistan for various support initiatives. One is the Amdan programme which provides livestock from chicken, goats and buffaloes for livelihood. The Ehsan undergraduate is a stipend programme for 200,000 students over the next 4 years and the Nashonuma programme focuses on nutrition support to prevent stunting.
The recently launched Ehsaas Ration programme gives out a subsidy of 30 percent on flour, pulses and cooking oil to 20 million families all across Pakistan. This will cover more than 53 percent of the population. The world bank in its recent report on ‘Social Protection Measures during Covid 19’ stated that Pakistan’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme ranks fourth globally in terms of the number of people covered and 3rd globally in terms of the percentage of population covered amongst those that covered over 100 million.
All the above have been a resounding success, welfare initiatives with social impact but many others like low-cost housing and the single national curriculum are in the process of implementation.
So why are we good at new short delivery programmes and unable to work in continuity? Over the years, the executive has been purposely fragmented, detached and broken with the express desire to prevent it functioning. As a result, it functions to stop implementation, not to promote it. The 18th amendment to the constitution has further broken down the system. The other dangerous and tragic issue is of entitlement, the so called boys club; or call it the fraternity or sorority house mentality.
People are promoted for positions, not because they are eligible or the best candidate, but because they are one of the group, who will toe the clan’s agenda, not the country’s interest. These clubs may be based on ethnicity, religious narrative or just common material interests. Our moving forward will need to address these issues of injustice in society and our perceptions of our own actions. The buck finally stops at ourselves as citizens of Pakistan, whether we have the capacity and consciousness to do the right thing wherever we are functioning.