THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Pakistan is in southh Asia, bordering to Arabian Sea, between India in the east, Afghanistan in the North West, china in the north. The population consists of 200 million (estimate by census commission of Pakistan). Pakistan is parliamentary federal state with three –tier governance structure. It consists of the central government (comprising of the national parliament, also senate), provincial governments, and local governments.
The country is passing through a period where political, economic and socio-cultural crisis and confusions are conspicuous everywhere. Since its inceptions, politics in Pakistan has remained a power full mans vocation. Most of the time, the country has been dominated by a political structure controlled by the military and even during the times of a civilian government, the power is wielded by the military.
National cohesion and political and economic stability ostensibility remained the main agenda, fostered always through the political exclusion of dissent and participation of people in the nation building process. Stability meant control: control over natural and human resources, peoples thought and historical diversity of people’s cultures and the languages by ruling elite especially the military and civil bureaucracy. For such concept of stability, it was mostly imperative to put the federal structure of Pakistan In disarray by resorting to most coercive and centralized state apparatus, giving birth to the cycle of a permanent state of instability.
Today Pakistan is facing multiple imbalances .the critical issues are an uncontrollable law and other situation, militarization of state and society , drug trafficking , ethnic and sectarian violence, religious extremism and violence against women’s and minorities . The continued denial of basic human rights, strengthening civil society institutions and people’s participation has considerably reduced the capacity of the state and society to effectively address these challenges.
On the economic front of country is heavily dependent on international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, and is heavily under the dept trap. at the end of the fiscal year 2008 , Pakistan’s debt stood at us $45.4 billion (economic survey of Pakistan :2007-08:156).currently around 33 percent of people in Pakistan are living below the poverty line (economic watch 2001). Being essentially a rural country , the most valid generalization about the poor is that they are disproportionately located in rural areas and are primarily engaged in agricultural and associated activities ; women and children are more poor than adult males (economic watch: 2001 ). About three quarters of the very poor scratch out their livelihood from subsistence agriculture, either as either as small farmers or as low paid farm workers. Some of the remaining one-third are also located in rural areas engaged in petty services, and others are located in marginal areas of urban centers where they are engaged in various forms of self employment such as street-hawking, trading, petty services, and small scale commerce (economic watch 2001).
Nearly of the population lives on less than dollar a day. Around 67.5 percent of the population in Pakistan depends directly upon agriculture. Of the total number of farmers roughly 93 percent own 36 percent of the land, and they earn minimum levels of incomes (GOP: 2005-06) .Ever since independence due to incept policies of various governments, there had been no sincere and genuine efforts for improving agriculture and the farming community is suffering. The result is low returns to farmers pushing a vast majority of them to live below the poverty. Moreover, this situation has seen a consistent move of villagers towards urban areas, increasing the complexity of urban life problems.
Economic growth remains a big challenge in Pakistan. Against the target of 7.2 percent, Pakistan’s GDP growth has been falling persistently. It fell from 24.1 percent in 2007 -08. What is alarming is the declining share of agriculture in GDP that has been falling persistently. it fell from 24.1 percent in 2001-02 to 20.9 percent in 2007 -08 (economic survey of Pakistan :2007-08).since agriculture remains the single largest sector of Pakistan’s economy and a major source of foreign exchange earnings, it provides employment to 44 percent of the country’s labor force. Thus the decline in this sector directly or indirectly affects the lives of a major chunk of the labour force, especially in rural areas.
Growth in the service and manufacturing sectors is also significantly declining . Pakistan’s manufacturing sector recorded the weakest growth in a decade during the outgoing fiscal year 2007-08(economic survey of Pakistan: 2007-08). The growth in public and defense services is calculated on basis of budgeted figures of expenditures incurred in the public sector and hence reflects the increase in the income of public sector employees and increase in development and mainly defense expenditure. Since the state failed to deliver, the increase in public sector expenditure can be considered a loss. Moreover, since a considerable chunk of public services is owned by a military run businesses, the profit of such businesses also goes to the military and is not spent on people’s development.
Pakistan’s trade situation also presents a sorry picture. in 2006-07 Pakistan’s export registered a growth of less than 4 percent , as against 29 percent import (economic survey of Pakistan :2007-08) . as a consequence , the defect in trade and current accounts has winded .
Social indicators in Pakistan also present a gloomy picture. Social development has been one of the major policy objective of different governments and administrations in Pakistan. The fact that social development in Pakistan has lagged behind still remains a grim reality. The starting factor is that the impact of this failure in health, education and housing sectors has been unequally distributed. Given that the poor lack the capacity to access the market for their needs and basic services, the success or failure of the state level social policies, plans and schemes has a direct impact on their welfare. The history of social development in the country is best with policies, plans, programs, projects and schemes with no positive outcomes for the poor.
It is in this background that the rationale for the recent decentralization in Pakistan was presented. The new millennium saw an increasing enthusiasm for decentralization and good governance. It was thought that the failure of earlier development programs was due to bad governance. it was believed that unless more inclusive ,appropriate and modern institutions were introduced ,peoples development and modernization was not possible .though decentralization did bring some minor changes in the lives of poor in some areas , overall , instead of bringing the desired results ,it has further strengthened the power and prestige of the rural elite and powerful classes in urban localities .in short , every aspect of life in Pakistan seems to be in state of dilapidation , without much hope of a better future
METHODOLOGY
TYPE OF STUDY:
This is a descriptive and qualitative study that used in depth interviews and focus groups discussions as primary data collection techniques. Secondary data sources included books, magazines, newspapers, published and unpublished reports, and case studies. the choice of a qualitative design was based on the objective of study .it was felt that the knowledge, attitude and perceptions of people could be best explored through the open-ended and flexible attributes of the qualitative methods, which were also most suited for gathering information about the age, education, family situation, cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds, and income and ways of subsistence of people.
STUDY POPULATION:
The target population for focus group discussions and interviews was spread through all the four provinces of Pakistan and it was divided into four main categories of respondents:
1. Invisible citizens.
2. Visible citizens.
3. Interlocutors.
4. Co-analysts.
About 70 percent of the respondent were from the first category (invisible citizens), 20 percent from the second category (visible citizens), seven percent from the third category(interlocutors) and three percents form the fourth category (co-analysts).
DEFINITION OF RESPONDENTS CATEGORIES:
Invisible citizens: this category was defined in flexible manner, it included those who are ‘’not heard’’,’’not engaged’’, ‘’not acknowledged’’, ‘’not empowered’’, ‘’not given opportunity ‘’, ‘’ignored’’, etc. the invisible citizens included both men and women’s from rural as well as urban areas of all the four provinces , but the focus was on young people in the age group of 18 to 40 years as they shall be the citizens of the new millennium .
Visible citizens: the people identified under this category were prominent yet having some link with the invisible citizens. For example for the cluster of youth, important individuals having links with youth groups, student unions, etc. were interviewed as visible citizens
Interlocutors: the third category was comprised of people who could offer responses or clarifications on the views of the visible and the invisible citizens, and who had a clear vision of a good life. They included high level government officials, political leaders, head of NGOs, women leaders, intellectuals and academicians, etc.
Co-analysts: this category included people who had a formed ideas and understanding issues on the basis of their research on societal functioning. They were mostly academics, consultants, government policy analysts, etc.
