Development in Democracy

The National Assembly is completing its constitutional five-year term tomorrow. Holding the elections on time would mark a successful political, democratic transition-a first for Pakistan! The historic nature of these anticipated events must, however, force a change of expectations the electorates attach to their representatives and a shift in thinking about what the latter are actually supposed to do for the former.
This Parliament deserves credit, for, its legislative record is numerically better than the previous parliament. Official data show that the NA has passed 81 Acts or amendments that are more than the 38 Acts or amendments that were passed by the previous NA (2002-2007). This NA passed 130 bills, from amongst 185 bills introduced by the private members and 91 bills moved by the Federal Government.
But, breaking up from the past is proving to be difficult. Parliamentarians, whose job is to debate issues and make laws for the country, remain engaged in development work, trying to secure and spend as much of funds as they can for schemes in their constituencies. Amid local bodies elections not happening, they justify championing the spending on the dilapidated infrastructure in their constituencies.
The outcome is a patchy development landscape throughout the country. More worrisome is that the elected lot get so consumed in protecting their own voting pockets that they lose sight of the bigger, macro issues that come back to hurt the constituents they claim to be looking out for.
For instance, the Federal Governments mismanagement of the economy, its indecisive stand on fighting militancy, and its inept handling of the energy crisis have affected households across the country in various ways.
But, rather than confronting the governments fiscal extravagances, or gathering bipartisan support for energy sector reform measures, political parties in the center and provinces (all of which are represented in the NA) came up with their own solutions to deal with the after-effects, and not the causes. The skewed development priorities are obvious in Federal PSDPs and provincial annual development plans.
Such a development approach has fallen short of delivering benefits to the public in the face of challenges such as macro-economic instability, inflation, and law and order. There has been little to focus on economic growth and job-creation from the legislators. Doing development this way is akin to being penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Ribbon-cutting culture is something which even the more mature democracies, like those in the United States and United Kingdom, have not been immune from. But Pakistani politicians fixation with infrastructure projects is at a level which has come to determine electoral landscape.
In the better interest of democracy, the turf for infrastructure development has to be flattened out. Parliamentarians ought to pay attention to legislation, not micromanaging roads, bridges, sewerage lines and what not. Towards that end, the restoration of elected local bodies is a starting point.
There are large infrastructure gaps in various areas of Pakistan, which must be addressed. Formation of a National Development Council can help here, which is non-partisan in its composition, but gives the sitting government more say over setting development priorities so it can have the opportunity to fulfill its mandate, to implement the manifesto which it campaigned on and got the majority.
Moreover, Infrastructure Development Authorities-for large and mid-sized projects-can be formed to undertake future development, in partnership with the private sector. A reformed bureaucracy will be in a better position to oversee the management of the completed projects.
Such an approach towards development may go some way in attracting those people to the NA who are serious about lawmaking, while those who have an affinity for local development work may want to run for local government office. Also, when development is perceived to be free from political influences, the caretaker government formation process wouldn be as cumbersome as it is these days.
The question is where will the winds of change come from: the electors or the elected? It appears that both have to be educated about their rights and roles, respectively. That is where the civil society organisations and news media have to play their part.