The Assessment of the Quality of Democracy in Pakistan in first 100 Days of National and Provincial Governments is an assessment by PILDAT and its Democracy Assessment Group (DAG) of the quality of democracy in Pakistan during this period. ^[1]

Year 2013 has seen Pakistan's first successful transition from one democratic civilian Government, under a civilian democratically-elected President, to another through Pakistan's 10th General Election held on May 11, 2013. As a result, Pakistan's Federal Government was formed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, MNA (NA-120, Lahore-III, Punjab, PML-N) as Prime Minister of Pakistan on June 7; while the new Provincial Governments were formed as follows. Balochistan: coalition Government of the PML-N, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and National Party (NP) on June 7 with Dr. Abdul Malik, MPA, (PB-48, Kech, Balochistan, NP) as Chief Minister ; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: coalition Government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) on May 29 with Mr. Pervez Khattak, MPA, (PK-13, Nowshera-II, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PTI) as Chief Minister; Punjab: Government of the PML-N on June 1 with Mr. Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, MPA (PP-161, Lahore-XI, Punjab, PML-N), as Chief Minister; Sindh: Government of the Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarian(PPPP) on May 29, 2013 with Syed Qaim Ali Shah, MPA, (PS-29 Khairpur-1, Sindh, PPPP) as Chief Minister.

In scoring a Pakistan-Specific Framework on Assessment of the Quality of Democracy, PILDAT's Democracy Assessment Group - DAG has scored the strengthening of the democratic process in the first 100 days at 44.5%. ^[2]In comparison, this was scored at 44.2% in 2012. The Performance of Democracy, getting a relatively weaker score of 25.6% is still higher as compared to the score of 20.9% awarded to performance of democracy - or governance in other words - in 2012 by the Democracy Assessment Group. At the conclusion of first 100 days of National and Provincial Governments in September 2013, the aggregate score of quality of democracy stands at 54%, which shows a marked improvement over the score received by the same - at 45% - in 2012.

The 100 days have witnessed a change in guard at the Presidency also with Mr. Mamnoon Hussain of the PML-N replacing PPP's Mr. Asif Ali Zardari as President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. ^[3]

The Federal and Provincial Governments, as well as the Presidency, have witnessed a smooth transfer of power in a democratic fashion. That the transfer of power has also resulted in an almost seamless political change of guard - in the Presidency, Federal Government, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the Balochistan provinces - also adds to the strengthening of the procedural democracy in Pakistan that was set in 2002 when our latest journey on consolidation of democracy resumed after the coup d'�tat of 1999.

Pakistan's 10th General Election, though not without its flaws, was relatively better and unlike the previous nine elections, subject to the rule of law. The independence of the Election Commission of Pakistan has been assessed at 58.8% - a relatively weaker score than 63.4% in 2012.

Government formation at the centre and in the provinces has also resulted in more inclusive democracy with a wider spectrum of political choice represented in 5 legislatures across Pakistan. The gradual maturity of Pakistan's democracy has also been evident in respect for the mandate of the largest party in each legislature. Accommodation shown by the PML-N in Balochistan and KP - by forsaking the slot of Chief Minister to a smaller, Baloch-led party and resisting the temptation to join hands with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam- Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F) to deprive the PTI from forming Government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - reflects the maturing of the political culture in Pakistan. That the Prime Minister reportedly discouraged his party colleagues in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) from engineering a No-Confidence motion against the PPP Government in AJK also heralds developments in strengthening of this culture.

There is appreciation of this political accommodation by the Government in Pakistan's public too. According to a country-wide public opinion poll commissioned by PILDAT at the completion of first 100 days, 59% people support the Federal Government in achieving harmonious relations with political opposition. ^[4]

In the first 100 days, with the Government announcement of establishing the Cabinet Committee on National Security with a permanent secretariat and a range of institutions contributing to the new institution, a major milestone has been reached on activating and restructuring the institutional decision-making mechanism on defence and national security. Even though the details of the re-constitution are somewhat vague and questions of full membership to non-cabinet members still need to be addressed, it remains an important initiative.

Convening of bye-election in 15 national and 26 provincial constituencies on August 22, 2013, simultaneously in a little more organised fashion in which administrative flaws were a little less obvious than in the General Election also constitutes one of the positive developments in first 100 days.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government starting with a progressive Right to Information law is another positive development. Its announced intention of introducing the right to services and conflict of interest legislation in the province must also be heralded.

However, with the KP Provincial Assembly convened for the least amount of days compared to the other three Provincial Assemblies - 18 days compared to 21 days of the Balochistan Assembly, 33 days of the Punjab Assembly and 19 so far of the Sindh Assembly - the KP Government's inability to even table a draft law on Local Government in the province whereas the other 3 provinces have even passed their respective Local Government laws, indicates a negative and weaker trend on governance in the province. With 13 Ministers, 5 advisers to the CM, 7 Special Assistants to the CM and 32 new Parliamentary Secretaries in the KP Assembly, the PTI Government of the KP, brought into power with the resounding promises of austerity and respect of rule of law, has found an innovative way to hood-wink the Constitutional and legal provisions on the size of the cabinet. ^[5]The increase in size of the number of MPAs awarded with Government positions almost matches the 'performance' of the ANP Government that the PTI has replaced, even though the KP Government claims no pay or perks are to be given to the 32 Parliamentary Secretaries.

Negative indicators on performance of elected Governments also include the slow and somewhat unsure formation of the Federal Cabinet. The Federal Government's inability in completing the formation of the Federal Cabinet in first 100 days, with major portfolios remaining vacant negates the very basis of choice of a majority of voters who chose PML-N to exercise executive authority as the elected Federal Government based on its 'readiness' 'experience' and 'competence.' The major activity of team building in the first 100 days remained both deficient and at times faulty. Mistakes were made in choosing the right people for key portfolios resulting in resignation or removal of some of those appointed.

There is also no evidence that an inclusive and institutional process of decision-making was followed by the ruling PML-N in its choice of candidate for the President or for that matter the Governor of Punjab. Murmurs in the party about availability of more suitable candidates for the post of President suggest that the most crucial aspect of a functioning democracy - the institutional decision-making in internal policies of a political party - has been ignored by the ruling PML-N in its key decisions during the first 100 days.

Chief Minister of Balochistan, whose nomination was welcomed as a measure for goodwill and one that may improve years of discord between the Federal Government and the Balochistan Provincial Government, has also failed to constitute a complete Provincial Cabinet in the first 100 days.

In the newly-elected 14th National Assembly of Pakistan, the Assembly rules were violated when the Standing Committees were formed after the inordinate delay of nearly one and a half month when the formation of Standing Committees is mandatory as per rules within thirty days of the election of the Leader of the House.^[6] No serious effort is evident on the part of the newly-elected leadership of the Assembly to make these committees functional. The crucial responsibility of oversight over the Executive by the legislators can not be exercised in the absence of functional committees. It is worth noting that committees only become functional with the election of their respective chairs. With non-functional committees in the first 100 days, Government's lack of concern is evident in its continuing failure to make available to legislators a critical tool for their performance. This is also a regression from the 13th National Assembly which had completed the formation of committees within the stipulated time frame.

The latest (4th) session of the 14th National Assembly has begun and ended with the lack of participation by the Prime Minister in a single sitting. Prime Minister has also not joined a single sitting of the Senate of Pakistan in the 100 days since his oath of office on June 5. This negative trend of giving little or no importance to the legislatures by the Prime Minister is also displayed in the Punjab Assembly by the PML-N's Chief Minister of Punjab.

The 4 Provincial Assemblies have also shown slow or negligible progress on formation of their respective Standing Committees. The previous Provincial Assembly of Balochistan also had the dubious distinction of not constituting any committee in its 5-year term (2008-2013). While an improvement in this trend is required in Balochistan, key reforms are required almost across all Provincial Assemblies in strengthening Standing Committees and empowering them with suo moto powers (except in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where these powers already exist) as well as powers to scrutinize Provincial Budgets, among legislative issues.

One of the most pressing tasks before the Assemblies was the passage of the Federal and Provincial Budgets which the 5 Assemblies undertook by merely going through the motions of the budget process. Parliamentary Budget Process - in the National and four Provincial Assemblies - requires urgent and comprehensive reforms. Since power over the purse strings is one of the most crucial powers of these legislatures, this power needs to be structurally reformed and strengthened by mainly increasing the period of budget sessions to allow for greater review and scrutiny of respective budgets by the public representatives and for departmental Standing Committees to have the power - as well as the time - to scrutinize departmental budgets before these are passed by the Assemblies.

Even though a key reform was introduced by a PML-N MNA in the outgoing National Assembly, ^[7] the party in power, if it so desired, could have made the discussion on the Federal Budget 2013-2014 more comprehensive by at least making a symbolic initiation of scrutiny of the budget by a special committee. Creative thinking was employed by the party in the Punjab province when, for discussion and scrutiny on the Local Government bill, a special committee was formed for the purpose as regular Standing Committees have not yet been formed in the Provincial Assembly.

There have been, however, some positive developments in the performance of the Federal Government. In the first 100 days, there is a talk of the Federal Government working on a National Security Policy. It also began working, early on, on the Energy Policy and got it approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI). The Government can certainly move faster while it also improves its weak adherence to transparency. A draft of the National Security Policy - which is reportedly under review - should have been tabled in the Parliament for discussion. Its details on reconstitution of the Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS) also are vague at best and could benefit from better details. The Government's proposed amended law on Right to Information is weaker compared to that put in place by the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In terms of economic development, the Government's decision regarding IMF is understandable though the more crucial issue of revenue generation and much-needed tax reforms has seen no major initiative by the Government so far.

In terms of strengthening the institutions of accountability, first 100 days of the Federal Government have passed without the appointment of the Chairperson of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). While this Government, like the previous, has begun to be uncomfortable of the Supreme Court's pushing on key decisions, the fact of the matter is that on key issues, no movement forward is generally seen unless the Supreme Court exerts its pressure against inaction. The question how successful is the democratic set-up in putting in place an effective mechanism to curb corruption has received a somewhat better score of 26.9%, while in the previous five years the average score was 20%.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's policy announcement at the floor of the House regarding his Government's decision to proceed with the High Treason case against the former Chief of Army Staff / President General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf is commendable on two counts - one that a decision to proceed against violation of rule of law and the Constitution has been taken by the new Government - and two that he decided to make this Statement at the floor of the House which is the right forum for announcing all policy decisions.

There is wide public support that the Federal Government should pursue the High Treason Case against General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf. Given Pakistan's turbulent political and democratic history and multiple violations of the rule of law, the State and Society of Pakistan require closure in order to move forward. This requires that we must proceed with this trial both to punish the violation of the Constitution as well as to close the door for any future violations. Supremacy of rule of law is necessary for peace and prosperity of the country and no country can prosper or even exist without the respect and supremacy of the rule of Law. The Supreme Court has also asked the Government to describe a step-by-step mechanism it wishes to adopt in pursuing the treason case.

However, it must be kept in mind that as per law, the final decision to go for a trial under high treason act is left to the Federal Government and only the Federal Government should independently make this decision without any pressure from any quarter. It is also important that this case, like any other, should be handled with complete fairness and without any hint of ridicule to any State institution. Rule of Law is the most important principle to uphold in a civilized society and the prime objective of the case should be to establish the principle of supremacy of rule of law.

Another positive development towards strengthening Parliamentary oversight has been seen in the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights approval of a draft bill titled "Regulate the Functioning of Intelligence Agencies" to make civil and armed forces intelligence agencies accountable to the Parliament. ^[8] The proposed bill, approved by the Committee on September 5, focuses on re-defining the role of intelligence agencies and addressing the grave issue of enforced disappearances. The draft bill has demanded the formation of an 'intelligence and security committee of the Parliament' comprising nine members from both houses of the Parliament. The initiative is a welcome step in the right direction as a law governing the work of the intelligence agencies in Pakistan has been long over-due. Even though the said legislation is a bill proposed jointly by the Senate Committee, its urgent passage from both Houses of Parliament and its implementation will be in line with the PML-N Manifesto 2013 in which the party pledged to bring intelligences services under the ambit of Parliamentary scrutiny. ^[9] While parliamentary oversight of the intelligence agencies is a desirable ideal, it must also be kept in mind that even an established and the oldest parliamentary democracy of UK has yet to constitute a Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence Agencies though a Prime Minister's nominated committee of Parliamentarians had been undertaking some degree of 'cooperative oversight' of the intelligence agencies since1994. A gradual but steady approach towards attaining the ideal of parliamentary oversight of intelligence agencies may be the realistic way forward.

Formation of Local Governments offers a sorry saga of unfinished business in the first 100 days. While the 4 Provincial Governments failed to put in place comprehensive legal framework for representative Local Governments in the provinces in the past 5 years (2008-2013), the recent progress on passage of Local Government laws has also come about through the pressure of the Supreme Court. While Local Government laws have been passed by Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh Assemblies in the first 100 days - with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa conspicuous by its inaction - the respective laws are not without their flaws. Sindh and Punjab have failed to create political consensus on the form of Local Governments, and Balochistan has just amended the existing law.

Contrary to its electoral pledge, the PML-N which vowed in its election manifesto to make "every effort to secure a certain degree of uniformity in the local Government system within and among the provinces," ^[10] plans to hold local Government election on non-party basis in Punjab, which is not in sync with the rest of the Provincial Governments that are holding it on a party basis. The failure of the Federal Government of the PML-N has resulted in lack of leadership as it was supposed to take a lead in making a law on Local Governments in the Federally administered areas, and could have, through that law, offered guidance and certain degree of uniformity in the system of Local Governments across the country.

The Government's All Parties Conference (APC), held on September 09, 2013 - originally scheduled to be held on July 12 - called for "giving peace a chance. "The APC which was termed to be held to discuss the "national security crisis besetting Pakistan," ^[11] called upon the Federal Government to "initiate dialogue with all the stakeholders forthwith," leaving to the Federal Government important pre-requisites of such a dialogue such as "development of an appropriate mechanism and identification of interlocutors." ^[12] Not only the Federal Government did not outline a National Security Policy, as was expected earlier, the APC on "National Security Crisis" was held without the presence of Prime Minister's Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sartaj Aziz, who was conspicuous by his absence.

While a consensus was repeated through the APC, a critical issue, once again, was left unanswered in the 100 days, i.e., framework of the proposed dialogue as well as the lack of clarity of the Federal and some other Governments' position on how do we, as a country, characterize or define various groups fighting the State in its bloodiest, craziest forms. Should the characterization be that such groups are "our brothers and sisters gone astray who need to be brought back into the fold" or that such groups are the "enemies of the State that need to be defeated in every possible way.," - or something in-between these positions. This lack of clarity is the most alarming phenomenon and one that will hamper any effort of developing a meaningful policy on national security and has been a grave cause of demoralization of our law enforcement agencies. While political parties including the PPP, ANP and MQM must be commended for their clarity on this issue, little or no development is visible on whether there are any efforts by the PML-N and the PTI, in-charge in the centre and two provinces respectively, in creating this clarity.

It is also important for any elected Government to remember that people's trust is reposed in them to take decisions for the country - a responsibility no Government can or should abdicate. While consultations are a welcome aspect of democratic decision-making and Parliament - not necessarily the APC - provides the only credible forum for political consultations, it is the Government that needs to take critical decisions. Consensus-building - another important term - has its advantages but in the modern democratic world, democratic Governments are charged with the responsibility to take decisions and move forward with or without consensus and the best place to debate an issue or policy and to build consensus is Parliament, not through APCs.

The Federal Government's intervention on the issue of law and order in Karachi, which was also appreciated in the APC Resolution, has been termed by many as a good gesture which strongly conveys that the Federal Government, like all other Pakistanis, is concerned about the situation developing in Karachi. It was, however, a difficult situation. On the one hand, the Federal Government could not remain unconcerned on the deteriorating law and order situation in the largest port city of the country and it had to find a way to initiate meaningful actions to address the extra-ordinary situation; on the other hand it could not sideline or ignore the elected Provincial Government which had received the public mandate only three months back. Within these two key parameters, the Federal Government has, at least for the time being, succeeded in making the Provincial Government more cooperative in allowing the law enforcement agencies to take independent actions without much political consideration. It remains to be seen whether this arrangement can sustain itself and achieve the objective of restoring peace in the city.

On the new Government's approach on developing relations in the region, developments on the Line of Control (LoC) are not understandable at all and have almost derailed the dialogue process with India once again. Before the situation gets out of hand, the Government must thoroughly discuss this in the CCNS with complete appraisal of facts. Increasing indications are that the ruling PML-N is not clear on how the violations on the LoC have taken place. It is also important that in situations like this, the relevant Parliamentary committees, such as the Standing Committees on Defence in the Senate and National Assembly, should hold their independent hearings to ascertain the facts and to oversee the policy of the Government instead of just following the cue given by the executive. The checks and balances provided by three independent branches of the democratic State namely the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary constitute the bedrock of a democratic society.

In these 100 days, numerous complaints of mismanagement and delayed action have emerged pertaining to the performance of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The ECP must undertake a comprehensive review of quality of the General Election by involving all stakeholders. The ECP exposed its lack of grasp on the concerned Constitutional and legal position when it was unable to plan Presidential election in time that triggered a crisis in which the Supreme Court had to step in. Its inability to defend its position on the Presidential election in the Supreme Court led to the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner who later on wanted to defy the Supreme Court decision. In a welcome, though belated development, the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of the CEC has been formed. It is high time that, learning from the experience and performance of the ECP, the Parliament initiate a change in qualification of the CEC and members of the Election Commission. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Members of the Election Commission do not have to be necessarily from the Judiciary and a Constitutional amendment in this regard is needed to make it in line with the practice in most of the countries including India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka where the background of Judiciary is not a pre-qualification. The effectiveness of the ECP in enforcing its writ was assessed at 51.3% while the score was 52.4% in 2012.

The Superior Judiciary's activism and independence have continued to serve as positive indicators in quality of democracy in Pakistan. Judiciary's activism has resulted in exposing successive Governments' inaction and wrongdoing and helped accelerate performance. While the Judiciary's new-found independence and assertion of its position are generally hailed as contributing to the strengthening of institutional democracy in Pakistan, criticism is rather respectfully directed towards the Supreme Court which at times zealously oversteps its legitimate sphere. Critics of this 'activism' submit that with its actions that can be termed increasingly 'populist', the Court steps into the role of other State organs in many 'public' issues and engages in policy-making, which is not its domain. Many call into question the appropriateness of the Court to adjudicate upon a specific policy issue which is otherwise deemed to be outside its realm of power. A negative outcome of this has been that other institutions are undermined to a point where they have developed a habit of looking to the Supreme Court for action instead of being pro-active themselves. The Supreme Court also may consider aligning itself to other institutions of the State in order to strengthen those and in the process strengthen democracy.

In general, media warmly welcomed the peaceful, orderly transition from the completed term of the previous Parliament, Provincial legislatures and Governments to the newly elected entities. Appreciation was also expressed for the PML-N's positive approach to enabling the formation of Governments in Balochistan and Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa by other parties. The basic duty of keeping audiences updated and informed on events was rendered with reasonable efficiency. Several sections of the media continued to give prominence to observations made by the superior Judiciary during hearings of cases, a trend now set for the past 5 years and a trend that remained unchanged in the first 100 days, sometimes tending to distract from the advent of a new democratic phase. In respect of a required sobriety on the part of media in comprehensively informing the public about the complexity of factors shaping economic conditions, be it inflation, fuel price increases, geo-political relations, internal governance, several TV channels tended to trivialize and sensationalize rather than educate with maturity and balance. The deplorable practice of violating the sanctity of news bulletins that should convey only the facts by, instead, using infotainment techniques to add songs and comments along with the transmission of news continued unabated. This accentuated the tendency towards excessive haste in pre-judging and assailing the new Government/s instead of giving them adequate time to get to grips with the enormous challenges which the country faces. English newspapers provided the most balanced content during the initial phase of a new 5-year term. However, even though the Media Commission's Report to the Supreme Court became available on the SC's website, less than a handful of leading newspapers published analyses based on detailed scrutiny of the far-ranging Recommendations contained in the Report, some of which urge for media themselves to conduct direly needed internal reform.

The independence of media from Government influence was assessed at 55% by DAG and its diversity was assessed at 55% while in 2012, the score of independence of media was 61.8% and diversity got 52.7 % scores.

Democracy has indeed strengthened in Pakistan. Given the complexity of challenges facing Pakistan, the 'performance' aspects of democracy have under-performed. Citizens expect the strengthened democracy to result in better governance. While the first 100 days are only a small indicator of this performance, greater engagement of a vigilant citizenry with the elected Governments and Legislatures offers a way forward towards better performance of democracy in Pakistan.

The scores assigned by DAG on IIDEA Framework ^[13] have recorded an upward trend when compared with the previous years. Quality of democracy received a score of 55% in September 2013 as compared to an average score of 45% in the previous years, which is an increase of more than 22 % or 10 percentage points.