{"id":65977,"date":"2026-09-17T05:52:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T05:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/?p=65977"},"modified":"2026-09-17T05:52:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T05:52:46","slug":"pakistan-merit-in-theory-patronage-in-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/2026\/09\/17\/pakistan-merit-in-theory-patronage-in-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan: Merit in Theory, Patronage in Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zahid Karim<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Nations do not rise simply because they are blessed with resources or a favorable location. They rise because they commit, in practice and not just in principle, to fairness and transparency. Merit is the foundation of that commitment \u2014 a system in which people advance because of ability, character and effort, not connections. As a constitutional promise, it means every citizen deserves an equal chance to compete. Where it takes hold, it drives innovation, rewards excellence and gives people a reason to invest in their own education and skills.<\/p>\n

Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and, more recently, China all illustrate what disciplined, merit-driven governance can achieve. Pakistan, by contrast, has never lacked talent \u2014 yet it keeps falling short, because merit is routinely traded away for favoritism, family ties and outright corruption. Even a sitting federal interior minister has described the governance system as having effectively broken down, no longer equipped to meet the country’s challenges.<\/p>\n

This is not for lack of legal grounding. The Constitution itself promises equal treatment: Article 25 guarantees equality before the law, and Article 27 bars discrimination in public appointments. But across politics, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the economy and education, the reality diverges sharply from that promise. Public Service Commissions at both federal and provincial levels were designed as neutral, merit-based recruiters \u2014 yet political interference has become business as usual within them.<\/p>\n

What has taken hold instead is a system where jobs, opportunities, contracts and social standing flow from loyalty, wealth and family networks rather than competence or integrity. This is no longer just an administrative flaw; it has become a structural weakness eating into the state’s political, social and economic foundations. The IMF’s 2025 governance diagnostic for Pakistan pointed to exactly this: persistent corruption risks, weak institutions, scattered oversight, uneven accountability and a fragile rule of law \u2014 all of it corroding both economic performance and public confidence.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is this more visible than in politics itself, where dynastic and family-based control of major parties keeps power concentrated in a narrow set of hands. Jobs, contracts, transfers and development projects too often become currency for rewarding political loyalty rather than tools for public benefit, while bureaucratic decisions bend to political pressure. Accountability, meanwhile, has long been applied selectively \u2014 a pattern that only deepens public distrust in institutions meant to enforce it.<\/p>\n

The social costs are just as severe. When outcomes depend on connections rather than merit, the idea that hard work and education can lift someone up starts to collapse. A qualified young person with real skills can still lose out to someone with the right family name or political backing. The result is a demoralized generation, rising brain drain, and in some cases a drift toward radicalization \u2014 a generation watching influence consistently beat preparation. Women and religious minorities, who often lack access to these same networks, bear an even heavier share of this burden.<\/p>\n

The economy tells a similar story. Pakistan’s troubles run deeper than a simple shortage of money; they stem from institutional weakness born of favoritism, showing up as low investment, a narrow industrial base, mounting debt, poverty, unemployment, inflation and lopsided distribution of resources. Real improvement would require steady policy, export growth, investment in people, tax reform, industrial modernization and leaner government spending \u2014 all backed by institutions capable of protecting stability. Instead, a culture of demerit and weak accountability has left these priorities largely unaddressed.<\/p>\n

Recruitment bodies illustrate the decay starkly. Agencies such as the Sindh Public Service Commission have become emblematic of institutional breakdown \u2014 marred by leaked papers, abruptly cancelled exams, rigged interview scores, fraudulent domicile claims and entrenched favoritism. State-owned enterprises tell a parallel story: bodies meant to hire on competence instead often hire on connections, turning constitutionally mandated merit institutions into engines of dysfunction that shut out qualified young people and hobble governance, especially in Sindh.<\/p>\n

The experience of Germany, Japan, China and the United States offers a real template \u2014 not for blind imitation, but for adaptation. These countries built durable prosperity on merit, professionalism, transparency and institutional accountability. Pakistan can draw on those lessons while shaping them to its own political and social realities: competitive recruitment, professional administration, real checks and balances, and independent accountability mechanisms.<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal should be a society where success is earned through ability, education, honesty and effort \u2014 not birth, connections or bribery. When merit genuinely anchors public appointments, corruption loses its grip, institutions gain independence, and public resources are handled honestly. Eliminating the culture of demerit is not a bureaucratic tweak; it is a foundational requirement for building a modern, democratic and just Pakistan \u2014 one where opportunity is decided by competition and oversight, not by who someone knows.<\/p>\n

The writer is Lecturer & Law Practitioner at High Court of Sindh, Karachi. He can be reached at Zahid.ali@Iqra.edu.pk<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zahid Karim Nations do not rise simply because they are blessed with resources or a favorable location. They rise because they commit, in practice and not just in principle, to fairness and transparency. Merit is the foundation of that commitment \u2014 a system in which people advance because of ability, character and effort, not connections. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1671,1672,1673],"class_list":["post-65977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-editorial-articles","tag-pakistan-merit-in-theory","tag-patronage-in-reality","tag-zahid-karim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65979,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65977\/revisions\/65979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}