Access to services in Pakistan is undermined by a weak bureaucratic structure which is tarnished by political clientage, resource constraints and lack of accountability mechanisms.
This was the crux of a special lecture on "Understanding the Dynamics of Access to Public Services: The Framework for Voice, Exit and Accountability" organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday. Fayyaz Yasin of SDPI moderated the proceedings.
The lecture was an attempt to understand the dynamics of 'Access to Services 'in public sector departments in Pakistan while keeping in view the framework of Voice, Exit and Accountability. It was explained that 'Voice' is a mechanism through which disgruntled citizens register their complaints and the 'exit’ is a situation where in absence of services from state, citizens ‘exit’ and acquire it from other sources.
In his lecture, Dr Shehryar Toru, Research Fellow and Governance Specialist at SDPI discussed various dimension of ‘access to public service’ and maintained that people resort to ‘voice’ to show their resentment on non-provision of services from state. "In absence of any response, citizens also chose to 'exit' from an existing service and acquire services such as education and health from elsewhere, if they have disposable income. But the poor’s are major loser who have to continuously look for state services as they have no other choice," he added.
He explained that advanced societies have well-functioning bureaucratic systems where welfare services are provided on the basis of equity by the state through open, fair and competent administration. He said that access to services becomes problematic in Pakistan where apart from disposal income, factors such as influence, status and entitlements also play an important part.
He was of the view that people, particularly the poor, disadvantaged and ordinary citizens, experience access problems in getting desired goods and services because of bureaucratic procedures, various forms of corruption, in-effective accountability, and un-equal distribution of resources.
He lamented that state institutions in Pakistan are highly politicised where behaviour of officials is driven by political clout and connection with politicians as a result they are not answerable to people, but to the politicians and influential. "This clientelistic accountability system diffuses formal accountability and impartiality and weakens state structures for service delivery, he added. He was of the view that question of accountability, therefore depends upon the active involvement of citizens not only in development planning but raising their voices for effective delivery of services from state.
Chairing the proceedings, Naseer Memon, Chief Executive, Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) said that human development was never a priority agenda in a ‘security state’ paradigm of Pakistan. "Ordinary citizen expects from democracy to provide justice and effective service delivery and if the system can’t deliver these two basic requirements beside other, all theories and fancy debates about democracy become irrelevant for ordinary people," he added.
He argued in favour of devolving state machinery and stated that without devolving the level of services, it is not possible for state to deliver, no matter how efficient bureaucratic services are in the country. Talking about provision of services from actors other than state, he maintained that although markets are not perfect anywhere but in developed societies, state through regulatory role, ensure that markets must deliver, behave and remain answerable to citizens.
Naseer Memon lamented the process of public sector development planning in Pakistan which has deeply been undermined by patronage politics and system of clientage. He said that "The state has surrendered to influential elites where only getting a simple water connection now depends upon behest of some 'wadera; and if one don’t have connections, all access lines for services are cut off for the ordinary persons," he added. He also lamented that minister or his cronies decide development plans solely for political mileage and without any research, data or information.
He urged civil society to continue the raising the issues through 'voice' and urged state to respond to publics adding that, "if peoples' voices are not heard, they may resort to violence which would further add into the chaos prevalent in the society."
© 2026 SDPI. All Rights Reserved Design & Developed by NKMIS WEB Unit
