Atta-ur-Rahman N.I., H.I., S.I., T.I
Pakistan’s gravest crisis is not merely its shortage of foreign exchange, rising debt, increasing poverty, frozen exports, mega corruption or recurring dependence on the IMF. These are symptoms of a deeper failure: we have never created a system in which competence, integrity and measurable performance determine who manages the affairs of the state. In an age dominated by artificial intelligence, biotechnology, advanced materials, digital technologies and knowledge-intensive industries, countries cannot be governed successfully through political patronage and administrative improvisation.
Pakistan needs a democratic system in which the finest professionals are entrusted with specialised ministries. Finance should be managed by outstanding economists and financial experts; education by accomplished educationists; health by leading public-health professionals; science and technology by distinguished scientists and innovators; agriculture by specialists in modern agriculture; and industry by persons who understand global manufacturing, technology and international markets. Political loyalty must never be allowed to substitute for professional competence.
Such a system can function under either parliamentary or presidential democracy, although a presidential structure makes it easier for the elected head of government to select ministers from the best talent available instead of being largely restricted to parliamentarians. Whatever constitutional arrangement Pakistan adopts, the principle must remain the same: the best expert in the country should head each national sector as Federal Minister or Secretary, measurable from citations and international patents/publications.
Parliament itself also requires reform. Those empowered to legislate on nuclear energy, artificial intelligence, taxation, biotechnology, international agreements and trillion-rupee budgets should possess minimum educational and professional qualifications. Pakistan should seriously consider requiring candidates for Parliament to possess at least a recognised university PhD degree or equivalent professional qualification, along with tax compliance, transparent declarations of assets and a clean record regarding serious financial misconduct. Democracy means rule through representatives chosen by the people; it does not require abandonment of reasonable standards for those entrusted with making national laws.
Pakistan’s weakness is visible in its innovation performance.
The Global Innovation Index 2025 placed Pakistan 99th among 139 economies, compared with South Korea at 4th, Singapore at 5th, China at 10th, the UAE at 30th and Vietnam at 44th. Pakistan’s expenditure on research and development is also extraordinarily low compared with technologically successful countries.
This must change fundamentally. Education and science should become constitutionally protected national priorities. At least 6 percent of GDP should be allocated to education and at least 4 percent of GDP to science, technology, research and innovation, with comparable mandatory provisions incorporated into provincial budgets. These allocations should not depend upon the preferences of successive finance ministers or governments. A knowledge economy cannot be built if education and research are treated as residual expenditures that can be cut whenever fiscal pressures arise.
There is an even more powerful way of forcing governments to improve public education. Every government servant, including Ministers, Secretaries and senior civil servants, should be legally required to send his or her children to the nearest appropriate government school or college. Failure to comply should result in dismissal from government service. Once those who make budgets, frame policies and run ministries have their own children studying in government institutions, the condition of those institutions will improve rapidly. Classrooms, laboratories, teachers, libraries, toilets, security and educational standards will suddenly become matters of personal concern for the governing elite. Nothing creates accountability more effectively than making policymakers directly dependent on the public services they administer.
Other Asian nations demonstrate what determined leadership can achieve. Singapore transformed itself from a resource-poor city-state into one of the world’s most advanced economies by emphasising education, competent administration, industrial upgrading and technology. South Korea moved from poverty to global leadership in semiconductors, automobiles and electronics through massive investments in education, engineering and research. China has constructed an enormous innovation and manufacturing ecosystem, while Vietnam has rapidly integrated itself into global electronics supply chains. Their systems differ, but all have pursued development through long-term planning, professional institutions, technology and exports.
Pakistan must similarly abandon an economy based overwhelmingly on low-value production. Our objective should be aggressive expansion into high-technology and value-added exports: information technology and artificial intelligence products, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, electronics, engineering goods, agricultural technologies, processed minerals, renewable-energy equipment, specialised chemicals, defence technologies and other knowledge-intensive products.
This effort should be translated into measurable national targets. Every Minister and Secretary should be among the best experts available in that ministry’s field and should serve under a clearly defined six-year performance contract. All Ministries should each be required to develop industries/programmes capable of generating an additional $5 billion to $10 billion in exports within six years, depending upon sectoral potential. Progress should be independently reviewed every year and the Ministers and Secretaries removed if they fail in achieving the targets set. Government performance must be judged not by speeches and inaugurations of projects but by measurable outcomes in terms of increase in exports.
If twenty major sectors each created even $5 billion of additional exports, Pakistan would generate another $100 billion additionally each year. That would transform our foreign-exchange position, reduce dependence on external lenders and create millions of skilled jobs. The emphasis must therefore shift decisively from trading, consumption and imports towards manufacturing, technological capability and exports.
Reforming Islamabad alone, however, will not solve Pakistan’s problems. Political and financial authority must move downwards. Too much money and administrative power remains concentrated in federal and provincial capitals. A constitutionally protected share, preferably 90 % of provincial budgets, should pass directly from the Federal Budget (not through provinces) to the elected district, municipal, town and union-council governments according to transparent formulas based on population, deprivation, infrastructure requirements and performance. This must be mandated through a Constitutional change.
Schools, sanitation, drinking water, primary healthcare, local roads and municipal services are fundamentally local responsibilities. Their planning and financing should occur as close as possible to the citizens who use them. Democracy that ends at provincial capitals is a deceptive democracy.
Pakistan should also seriously examine the creation of at least 40 more provinces based solely on administrative efficiency rather than linguistic, ethnic or political considerations. Provinces containing tens of millions of people are difficult to administer effectively from distant capitals. A non-partisan national commission should determine boundaries according to population, geography, economic viability, accessibility and quality of service delivery. Smaller administrative provinces would bring government closer to citizens and encourage healthy competition between regions without reinforcing ethnic divisions.
None of this requires weakening democracy. Parliament must legislate and scrutinise the executive. The judiciary, Election Commission, media and constitutional institutions must remain strong and independent. Local governments must be elected and financially empowered. Pakistan possesses outstanding scientists, engineers, physicians, economists, entrepreneurs and professionals at home and throughout its diaspora. Our tragedy is therefore not a shortage of talent. It is our failure to place that talent at the centre of decision-making.
The twenty-first century will belong to nations that educate their citizens, reward merit, generate knowledge, manufacture sophisticated products and export technology. Pakistan must move from a politics of personalities to a politics of performance; from centralisation to empowered local government; from ethnic administrative structures to efficient governance units; and from borrowing and consumption to knowledge-driven production and exports.
Democracy must survive, but democracy must also deliver. Pakistan now needs government based on competence, education, science, measurable targets and accountability. Nothing less will enable us to escape recurring crises and emerge as a prosperous, technologically advanced nation. Inshallah.
—The author is former Federal Minister for Science & Technology, former Federal Minister of Education, UNESCO Science Laureate and founding Chairman of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
