PML-N govt performs poorly on scorecard

ISLAMABAD: The current government was given an overall performance score of 44 per cent for last year, in a scorecard recently released by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat).

The scorecard is based on the data provided by the federal government, however, the government only scored above 60 per cent on only three of the 25 governance parametres. These areas were disaster preparedness and management where a score of 62 per cent was given; a score of 61 per cent was given for merit-based recruitments while a score of 60 per cent was given for Pakistan’s foreign policy management.

The scorecard reports that people’s perception of the quality of governance also showed marginal improvements in 2013-14 in comparison with 2012-13.

According to an official statement issued on Wednesday, the score has been awarded in the first-ever exercise of its kind in Pakistan, which gives scores on the quality of governance, based on a framework developed by Pildat which includes 25 indicators.

On the other end of the spectrum are the areas in which the government has scored the lowest.

These include poverty alleviation at 22 per cent and transparency at 27 per cent. The federal government, during the last year, failed to bring a new and effective right to information law, replacing the existing, out-dated freedom of information law.

“The Nawaz Sharif government’s anti-corruption efforts, public sector development programme, peace, stability and order, national defence and investment friendliness have scored at or slightly above the 50 per cent marks,” notes the statement.

Public approval ratings of the federal government on national defence, based on a Pildat opinion poll carried out in July-August 2014, stood at 60 per cent.

In contrast, the Pildat Score Card, based on data provided by the federal government, gave a score of only 48 per cent to national defence.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2015

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