Dawn Business
Some piecemeal efforts are taking place around the world to give ordinary citizens a voice in initial moves to democratise a country’s decision-making process, improve governance and empower citizens. The underlying issues are centralisation vs devolution, or bottom-up vs top-down approaches, in search of innovative ways to build a new world order in which no country or segment of the population is left behind. Thus, efforts have been initiated to review and redefine what may be called over-centralisation. As of 2023, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development documented 733 cases of lot-based deliberative assemblies around the world, most of them taking place over the last 20 years, which, in the subtitle of an earlier report, were called “a deliberative wave”. Citizen’s Assemblies are large groups of ordinary people, selected by lottery, who come together to learn about a public issue, hear from experts and advocacy groups and deliberate with one another and make recommendations. The breadth of the NCMC’s mandate, spanning economic management, security coordination, trade policy, and narrative control, suggests it could evolve into a superstructure for policymaking “Citizens’ Assemblies are gaining traction around the world,” says Helene Landemore, a political theorist at Yale, “Like voting, but in a more demanding form, citizens’ assemblies institutionalise a fundamental democratic premise: political equality.” If we actually want a democracy that reflects the thoughts of the country as a whole and delivers for everyone, Ms Landermore adds, we need to stop designing institutions around ‘natural leaders’. One may recall PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s observation that, “The people lead and people are led.” For this to happen, the party manifestos approved by the voters in a free and fair election should be implemented by elected representatives. While centralised authority needs to be rationalised to reduce undemocratic, arbitrary, and bureaucratic controls, social scientists suggested that it should primarily take the form of centralised guidance, drawing upon the successes and failures of various entities in the public and private sectors and across government tiers. To quote Mr Bhutto, “Those who nervously cling to the status quo as if it were immutable, hasten the collapse of the status quo.” The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed because centralisation there was not based on democracy. The “command economy” and the Russian management of its Republics brought about the collapse of the Union. The arbitrary rule of US President Donald Trump and his foreign policy are not helping to reshape the faltering US economic model or build a new progressive and equitable world order. The stipulated joint exercise of sovereignty by European Union (EU) member-nations was stalled by certain hegemonic states. With the euro replacing national currencies, the previous EU financial crisis worsened. In early April, Pakistan had set up the National Coordination and Management Council (NCMC) to act as a ‘war council’ to protect the economy with a broad mandate that allows it to bypass traditional bureaucracy for faster decision-making. It includes the prime minister and all four chief ministers, aimed at providing a unified response to the national crisis. In view of mounting crises, some optimists hope that the views of all participants will be given due consideration. The mid-April International Monetary Fund forecast lowered Pakistan’s economic growth to 3.5pc and projected inflation to rise to 8.4pc for the next fiscal year due to the Middle East conflict. At the same time, the government further reduced the development budget by Rs173 billion or 17pc of the annual allocations. And in view of the rising external sector pressures, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi urged the business community on the same day to bring back ‘20-30pc’ of their overseas wealth to Pakistan ahead of the upcoming budget. Pakistan has been exploring financing options to reportedly repay a $3bn loan to the UAE this month. Saudi Arabia has once again come to the country’s rescue by pledging an additional $3bn in deposits and extending its existing $5bn facility for a further three years, says an announcement by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb made in Washington on April 15. The challenge is to move faster beyond quick fixes. Operating with the support of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), the NCMC will serve as a centralised command centre to mitigate energy shortages. It will tackle economic challenges, including inflation control, investment opportunities and financial stability and handle tax reforms and development to boost national growth. It will coordinate issues relating to controls in security and management of the national narrative. “The NCMC can be read as an acknowledgement by the authorities that the crisis of governance cannot be addressed piecemeal,” says a Dawn editorial. “Oil prices, remittances, shipping routes, exchange rate stability and internal security all move together,” it went on, adding that, “The previous multi-committee arrangements had created coordination gaps. Moreover, the move therefore underscores the importance of time in crisis management.” There is, however, a deeper institutional implication that cannot be overlooked, say these analysts. The breadth of the NCMC’s mandate, spanning economic management, security coordination, trade policy, and narrative control, suggests it could evolve into a superstructure for policymaking. “While centralised decision making should improve coordination and reduce bureaucratic delays, it may, on the other hand, sideline ministries and concentrate too much authority in a single body, thus undermining existing structures.” Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, April 20th, 2026
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