ISLAMABAD: Though the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led federal government has failed to fare better, its government in Punjab is far ahead than other provinces in terms of good governance.

“Over the past one year, public has been able to see glimpses of the federal government’s policy agenda and initiatives for improved governance, however, results indicate that the efforts have been unable to register significant improvements in governance,” says a survey conducted by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) to gauge one-year performance of the federal and provincial governments.

While judging provincial governments’ performance, the nationwide poll, which is based on the opinion of 3,065 citizens and was released on Wednesday, said Punjab was ahead of Khyber Paktunkhwa (KP) which emerged second among the four provinces.

It said the Pakistan People’s Party led Sindh government had emerged as the clear loser.

Pildat survey says Centre’s performance far from satisfactory

The survey report said that poverty alleviation and energy production and management issues were critical in resuscitating Pakistan’s economic growth and development, but had been poorly assessed by the people with net performance rating of 51 per cent.

When the PML-N government was installed, it set economic revival, overcoming the crippling energy crisis, and eradicating terrorism and violent militancy in the country as critical areas that needed urgent and concerted efforts.

Energy sector

Despite rigorous efforts and policies designed to reform the energy sector and increase the production capacity, the public has deemed the first year’s efforts as insufficient.

Public views the government’s stated commitment to delivering relief in the power sector in four years time a long way off.

On economy, according to the survey, the federal government’s achievements in its first year of power have been received mostly negatively by the public.

The survey said that a year on, the PML-N government did not seem to have succeeded in dispelling the impression that the federal government is not open, transparent, honest or accountable in its policies and projects.

The incumbent government needs to do more in shaking off the lack of trust and perceptions of rampant corruption and dishonesty in its management of the country’s affairs.

Strong on national security

The survey said that PML-N led government has garnered strong positive assessments of its performance in national security sector with a net performance rating of 26 per cent.

Given Pakistan’s on-going struggle against violent militancy, this positive score reflects the public’s expectation that this government can succeed in purging rampant terrorism and violent militancy in the country.

The survey also stated that the federal government’s governance performance has been positively evaluated on three indicators: immunisation of children, security and foreign policy.

The opinion polls said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif received 46 per cent positive ratings in public opinion, while 52 per cent rated his performance in the last year as bad to very bad.

Provincial governments

According to survey report, nationwide public perception of the performance of four chief ministers showed that the chief minister of Punjab received the highest rating, with a net performance rating (NPR) of +33 per cent, as 65 per cent rate his performance as good to very good while 32 per cent rate it as bad or very bad.

In public opinion, the second ranking on the ladder is reserved for chief minister of KP, whose performance, though rated negatively, has the NPR of -14 per cent.

51 per cent respondents rated his performance as bad or very bad, while only 37 per cent of the respondents evaluated his performance as good to very good.

Third place on the ladder is reserved in public opinion for chief minister of Balochistan who received NPR of -19 per cent, as only 33 per cent respondents rated his performance as good or very good while the majority, 52 per cent, rated his performance as bad or very bad.

The Sindh chief minister occupies the opposite end of the performance meter, with NPR of -29 per cent, as a significant 59 per cent of the respondents rated his performance as bad or very bad while only 30 per cent of the respondents rated his performance as good or very good.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2014