Identity Versus Performance: Citizen's Trust In Public Institutions In Pakistan

Trust in the government is an important indicator of governance procedure involving the level of confidence that citizens' have towards the government.The study tries to ascertain what factors explain the variations in the trust level in public institutions in Pakistan.The study also gravitates on finding out how Pakistan's internal affairs affect the mega project,the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC).The study adopts the mixed-method approach.The cultural approach and institutional approach to institutional trust are the base of the study.This study uses quantitative data from South Asian Barometer Survey Wave 1 and Wave 2 and for the qualitative data,the study uses the author's conducted interviews in which the ten males and ten females participated from different regions of Pakistan.For quantitative data,this study analyzes the South Asian Barometer Survey Wave1 dataset released in 2008(SABSW1)and South Asian Barometer Survey Wave 2 dataset released in 2017(SABSW2).In this survey,2854 respondents from SABSW1 and 2487 respondents from SABSW2 participated from different parts of the country,excluding FATA(Federally Administered Area of Pakistan).Based on social and religious identities,the study developed the identities of the respondents as explanatory variables.These social and religious identities found to explain 10% of total variation from SABSW1 and 3% from the SABSW2 in the level of trust in public institutions.In the second part of the study,based on institutions performance,the study developed the performance of the public institutions as explanatory variables.The performance-based variables found to explain 35% of total variation from SABSW1 and 16% of the total variation from the SABSW2 dataset in the level of trust of public institutions.As compared to the social and religious identities of the respondents,the performance of the public institutions affects more the level of trust in public institutions.Overall,the people do not trust the public institutions and the main reason is the bad performance of the public institutions.The bad behavior of the government officials and the inactive role of Pakistan police negatively affect the level of trust in public institutions.For the qualitative data,results show variation among the level of trust in public institutions.The results make it clear that those who trust the public institutions are happy with the performance of the public institutions,and those who do not trust the institutions are not happy with the performance of the public institutions.The respondents found to be critical regards to the bad performance and inefficiency of public institutions.People are not happy with the corrupt behavior of the government employees,especially the Pakistan police.The results from both the quantitative and qualitative data show that the performance of the institutions has the strongest overall effect on variations in citizen's trust in public institutions in Pakistan than social or religious variables.Results reveal that the government can win the confidence of the people by improving the performance of the public institutions.It is very important to review the working style of Pakistan police to provide better services to the citizens.Corruption is another issue that is diminishing people's confidence in public institutions.Some people even criticized the government's slow pace.The study suggests that the government can win citizen's trust by improving police efficiency,eliminating corruption and adopting modern technology.For the survival of the democratic government and to overcome the political crises,the government must win the trust of the people.The results from SABSW1 show that the people of Pakistan believe that the US has more influence in Asia than China.The results from SABSW2 reveal that the people of Pakistan believe that China has more influence in Asia than the US.Between 2008 and 2017,people's opinions about China have changed drastically.The people of Pakistan consider China,a role model for their country,and they appreciate every agreement reached between China and Pakistan and want good relations with China.The results make it clear that the people of Pakistan support and appreciate the mega-project such as CPEC.This mega project will play an important role in the development of Pakistan and it will open the ways for new investment in Pakistan and generate revenue from this investment which will help the government to improve the performance of the institutions and in this way the government can win the confidence of the people.For a strong government in Pakistan,people need to have trust in the public institutions,and to win people's confidence;it is very important to make CPEC successful.