Learner’s Submission: Human Resource Capacity Development in Pakistan

“Role of Top leadership in Human Resource Capacity Development (HRCD).

The role of leadership of any country in its development is very important. In the perspective of HRCD the role of leadership becomes more important and critical with the development vision of the country. Therefore, in general, the top leadership of any country needs to consider following suggestions in order to align the HRCD with the development vision:

• Realistic National HRCD Policy & Legal framework should be designed for creating harmony with the growth and transformation plan of the country.

• Top leadership should establish a link between the political leadership system of the country and capacity development approach of the country.

• A favorable positive and motivated environment should be created; that can encourage the human resource of the country to move in to action.

• The top leadership should have to initiate change, show the change direction and should run the change.

The world is becoming like a global village and the government policies & institutes are becoming more precise, economic and HR Planning and HR Capacity Development is becoming more vital need for developing countries like Pakistan. It is Human resource capacity that brings pace in countries motion. All over the world, technology been regarded as the most critical resource in currently passed period, But leaders and experts have now changed the trends and are now of the opinion increasingly recognize human resource capacity development as potential the most crucial factor in the effective deployment of the country.

It is quit imperative that the political top leadership’s vision is critical and important for the HR capacity development of Pakistan. Leadership is the central point that relates the implementation of HRCD of the country with its planning of growth& development.

This Note describes the points that should be deliberately adopted by top leadership of the country in aligning HRCD with the development vision of the Pakistan.

• National HRCD policy and strategy should be established and implemented to the divisional level.
• There should be harmony in HRCD policy and its implication at all levels (Local, Divisional & National).
• At the same time, all HRCD efforts should be result oriented and geared towards the National development vision.
• National system for monitoring and evaluation of HRCD should be established.

The problem of settlement of highly qualified nationals, experts and skilled labor in other countries has affected Pakistan severely and this is an indication of losing the research and innovative capacity needed to participate in the development of the country. Pakistan at this moment in time is in dire need of massive capacity building projects and there is also in a dire need to plan again to bring back its brains (citizens). It is present in the next Five year plan (2014-19) to achieve the rapid Growth. Hopefully, there is no doubt, they could enable Pakistan to accomplish its growth and transformation goals by providing the supporting infrastructure for human resource capacity building for the country.” – Huhammad Akbar Malik – Punjab, Pakistan

Learner’s Submission: Decentralization, a Pakistani Prospective

“In human history, since the beginning, the centralized/bureaucratic government structure was considered an effective tool for ruling the country and governing the organizations. The centralized development approach believed in rule of thumb and vested powers in the king or the sovereign. With the passage of time, history observed the paradigm shift and unitary form of Government failed to ensure development in the way it was theorized. In the 70 and 80s decades of last century, the most productive concept, i.e. “decentralization”, emerged. Its goal was to enhance administrative and economic efficiency; improve implementation of development programmes and a greater degree of responsiveness to local needs of the people as well as of the society.

Decentralized form of government gives empowerment to the masses and ensures their participation in formulation of policies for their country. Some of the political authors are of the opinion that democracy and local governance are indispensable to each other.

Now the question is if the above mentioned hypothesis is true for Pakistan.

Here in our country, there is a great debate over the effectiveness of old colonial commissioner system vs. local government system. Unfortunately decentralization in Pakistan was introduced by the military dictators and they mostly utilized the system to fulfill their ulterior motives and for completion of their own agendas.

First it was Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who on 7 October 1958 imposed the Martial Law, and latter introduced the local government system with the name of Basic Democracy (BD). Majority of political scientist believes that the overall purpose of Basic Democracy system was to have a pool of 8,000 elected representatives of the people, who were under the direct control of the president. Just after one month of their selection, in February 1962, these electorate were subsequently used and influenced by Mr. Ayob for his selection as president of Pakistan; else he was not able to defeat the than contester Ms. Fatima Jinnah, the  sister of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

The second example is of Pervez Musharraf, who introduced the “Local Government Ordinance 2001”. The main motive behind the law was to bypass the political forces and to legitimize his illegal military regime. This came into being in the shape of “presidential referendum” which had no base in the constitution at all.

It is evident that the whole local government machinery was utilized and even the question that was put to the people for referendum was “Will you vote for the survival of the local government system, would you like to elect President General Pervez Musharraf as President of Pakistan for five years?”

As a result, in 2008, when new elections were held in the country and Musharraf was forced to leave the country. With the end of his regime, discussion about his local government started by different stakeholders and none of the province was ready to own his system.

This system was marked failed due to the following reasons:

• DCOs (District Coordination Officers, the Head of Administrative machinery of a District in Pakistan) and other bureaucratic machinery are naturally against local government system, as they never ever like to be under the control of others;
• Members of the parliament, including provincial member dislike it as per this system, mostly the developmental funds goes through the elected local Government representative;
• Political parties dislike it for being a remnant of a dictator regime;
• During the Musharraf regime, the law and order situation, as well the prices of daily utilities were rise by leaps and bounds. Common people are of the opinion that the than local government system is for behind in prompt response compared to commissioner system.
• Even the political parties accept or reject the local government system based on their political motives. Karachi example can be quoted where MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement, a political party having strong existence in Sindh Pakistan) is in its favor, whereas ANP (Awami National Party, a political party of Pakistan) asking for its abolition and restoration of old commissioner system.” – Hamad Khan – Punjab, Pakistan