Pakistani citizens are the least protected in the world against terrorism and conflict, according to a report by the World Justice Project.
The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law report 2017-2018 ranks countries under a host of indicators including Order and Security, Fundamental Rights, Regulatory Framework, Criminal Justice, Civil Justice, Constraints on Government power, Absence of corruption and Open government.
Pakistan scored the poorest score (0.32) on the Order and Security indicator and was ranked 105 out of 113 countries in terms of overall performance.
The scores were calculated by taking into account public opinion and analysis of experts.
While Pakistan’s performance in almost all departments was poor, the country is among the few in the middle-income bracket that is improving. Pakistan moved a place up in the rankings as compared to last year, with the score improving by 0.01.
Venezuela, Cambodia, Egypt, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Afghanistan and Pakistan lag at the bottom of the report while developed countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, UK, Netherlands and Austria remain at the top.
Order and security:
Control on crime, civil conflict and whether people resort to law or violence to manage differences with other citizens were the three elements of the Order and security category. Pakistan scored 0.06 for managing civil conflict, 0.52 for crime control and 0.32 for absence of violent redress, achieving 0.32 in total, the lowest score on the list.
Fundamental rights
Main sub categories for the Fundamental rights indicator were equal treatment and lack of discrimination, due process of law, freedom of opinion/expression, right to life and security, freedom from arbitrary interference, fundamental labour rights, freedom of assembly/ association and freedom of belief/ religion.
Ranked 4th in South Asia and 100 out of 113 in the world, Pakistan scored 0.40 on the measure with the poorest score on labour rights, scoring only 0.25/1. The country also scored poorly on the other aforementioned indicators.
Regulatory enforcement
Civil justice
Access to civil justice, control on discrimination, corruption and improper government influence were the sub-categories in this domain, with the country ranked 107 in the world and lowest in South Asia. Pakistan’s scored was hampered by poor performance in corruption (0.28) and discrimination (0.30). The report also details how decisions made by the courts are poorly enforced resulting in an overall low score.
Constraints on government powers
Control on government power by legislature, judiciary, independent auditing, sanctioning government officials for misconduct, subjection of government to non-governmental checks and supremacy in the rule of law during power transition were the elements in this category with Pakistan scoring 0.53 and ranked 66 in the world. Poor transition of power and poor sanctioning of government officials found guilty of misconduct were the areas were the country scored lowest (0.54 and 0.38 respectively).
Absence of corruption
Open government
This particular measure calculated transparency in the government with right to access public laws/ information/ data, civic participation and effective complaint management system forming the sub-categories.
Ranked 80 worldwide and 5th in the subcontinent, the country scored 0.45 with the lowest score in public access to information regarding laws/data (0.26). Score on civic participation, however, was surprisingly high (0.58) given the overall performance of the country.