Democratic Accountability: Examining the
Efficacy of Constitutional Instruments
Seminar Report
11th August, 2014
Islamabad
The 18th, Constitutional Amendment brought
about monumental shifts in Pakistan's federal
architecture and introduced new divisions of
power between the federal and provincial
governments. The amendment also introduced
regular publishing of annual reports as
instruments
of
democratic-parliamentary
accountability and transparency. It is now
constitutionally obligatory that the annual
reports of Council of Common Interests (CCI),
National Economic Council (NEC), Principles of
Policy and bi-annual reports of National Finance
Commission (NFC) be laid before both houses of
Parliament for debate and discussion.
Strengthening Participatory Federalism and
Decentralization Project of UNDP Pakistan in
collaboration with Centre for Civic Education
Pakistan jointly organized a research based
seminar on “Democratic Accountability:
Examining the Efficacy of Constitutional
Instruments”. The seminar was held to initiate
an informed discussion on constitutional
governance focusing on the performance
analysis of the CCI, NEC, NFC and POP reports
and to critically examine the quality, frequency
and efficacy of these instruments of democratic
accountability.
Attended by political party representatives,
government functionaries, civil society,
academia and technical experts the seminar
involved an interactive dialogue on the culture
and compliance of these constitutional reports.
The
Seminar
emphasized
that
mere
presentation of constitutional reports is not
enough rather it is pertinent to discuss and
debate these reports in the Parliament;
moreover it is imperative to ensure that they
become public documents that can be reviewed
and analyzed externally as well.
The seminar was divided in three sessions
which included: Presentation on culture of
constitutional
reports
and
compliance;
Presentation on Report of Council of Common
Interest
and
Principles
of
Policy
and Presentation on Report of National Finance
Commission and National Economic Council.
The seminar opened with welcome remarks
from Amir Khan Goraya, Assistant Country
Director UNDP. Mr. Goraya suggested the need
to deepen understanding of the 18th
Amendment and engage with various
stakeholders for production of relevant
knowledge and provide technical assistance to
various tiers of governance. He indicated that
these constitutional reports are democratic
instruments of accountability and oversight to
gauge
government’s
performance
and
functionality of the Constitution. He stated that
UNDP would continue to support robust
discussions
and
learning
events
on
constitutional governance in Pakistan.
Zafarullah Khan Executive Director of Centre
for Civic Education talked about the culture of
constitutional reports and compliance. He said
that the constitutionally mandated reports of
CCI and NFC were laid before the parliament in
2014 whereas NEC and POP were presented in
2013 and 2012, further he added that there has
been no discussion in the Parliament or any
provincial assembly on any of these reports. He
emphasized the importance of institutions to
communicate and coordinate to improve the
quality and timeliness of these reports.
Dr. Syed Jaffar Ahmed of Karachi University
while analyzing the report put forth by the CCI
said that since the 18th Amendment, the
Council of Common Interest has emerged as a
key institution. It is envisaged to become an
effective dispute resolution, economic planning
and development forum. He further stated that
article 154 of the constitution has empowered
the CCI to formulate and regulate policies
regarding subjects included in the Federal
Legislative List II and also mandated the CCI to
have an independent secretariat. Dr Jaffar
pointed out that twenty four meetings of the
CCI have been convened since 1975 of which
only one took place during military rule (2006).
This clearly reflects as how federal spirit and
inter-provincial structure is undermined in
military regimes in Pakistan. He suggested that
dissemination of and discussion on this report is
crucial to healthy inter-provincial relation in
Pakistan. He also suggested that as provided in
the Constitution, an independent secretariat of
CCI should be established to optimize the spirit
of participatory federalism in Pakistan.
Ms. Asma Faiz, from Lahore University of
Management Sciences talked about the report
on the implementation of Principles of Policy.
She pointed out that though the report
provides good informational value there is a
need to compile and interpret the huge
amounts of data available in these reports. She
stressed the need for dedicated data analysis
since the report includes interesting facts and
figures about women’s participation in national
life, protection of family, protection of
minorities, social development and foreign
policy. Further, she pointed out that
information on local governments has been
overlooked and the issue of minorities has been
inadequately covered in the report. She also
indicated that the major portion of Report on
PoP is allocated to the issues related to foreign
policy with mere logistic information instead of
reporting on the results of diplomacy. Asma
also identified structural gaps in the report by
stating that issues related to service delivery
and development disparity have been
completely overlooked in the Report. She also
suggested that training of report writers to be
organized for strengthening parliamentary
reporting system in the country.
Dr. Idrees Khawaja, from Pakistan Institute of
Development Economics discussing the NFC
report explained that the 7th NFC award
resulted in increased revenues to provincial
governments which was a positive sign. He
highlighted that fair distribution of resources
are essential to interprovincial harmony. Dr.
Khawaja suggested that the NFC report needs
more detailed information on expenditure
utilization which will make it more useful. He
pointed out that provincial assemblies did not
present individual NFC reports and after the
passage of 18th amendment it is essential for
provincial governments to present such reports
before their respective assemblies.
Zubair Faisal Abbasi, Executive Director of
Impact Research and Training examining the
report of NEC claimed that it lacks triangulated
analytical analysis of the issues and it does not
delve into any kind of analysis and only presents
the facts and figures as information. He further
pointed out that data has been presented
without referencing and attribution and hence
it is difficult to determine the accuracy of data
presented. Mr. Abbasi suggested the need to
include a section on recommendations in the
report and to provide a provincial breakup to
reflect on questions of balanced development
and regional equity to identify development
gaps and generate advice for governments. Mr.
Abbasi further stated that the report does not
address results related to financial allocations at
the national and provincial levels, while
concluding his analysis Mr. Abbasi provided
recommendations for improvement in the NEC
report which include; Planning Commission and
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics
should be involved in preparation of the report,
meetings should be convened twice a year
rather than once, meetings to review the
performance of the report are also vital, the
review should be based on Principles of Policy
and the report should go beyond financial
allocation analysis and it should be published
right after the end of financial year.
Deputy Chairman Senate of Pakistan, Senator
Sabir Ali Baloch stated that the importance of
holding such dialogues is to critically analyze its
contents to enhance understanding amongst
different stakeholders. He hoped that today’s
discussion will gauge the effectiveness of these
instruments as well as inform future
debate/discussion on the subject. Senator Sabir
highlighted that the 18th Amendment has
introduced unique accountability mechanisms
and there effective implementation is vital to
enrich country’s democratic system. He
acknowledged the fact that presentation of
constitutional reports was not enough rather
the parliamentarians, civil society, academia
and the media must discuss and debate on
these reports .He underscored the importance
of implementing the 18th amendment in true
letter and spirit which will consequentially
ensure democratic accountability.
Representing SPFD, Amjad Bhatti expressed his
thanks to the panelists and participants, he
reiterated UNDP’s commitment to enrich the
knowledge base on democratic accountability
and deepen the understanding of constitutional
governance in Pakistan. He also underlined the
need of creating critical mass for the effective
transition
management
of
the
18th
Constitutional Amendment.