From perception to performance

Pakistan stands today at a decisive psychological and economic crossroads. After years of macroeconomic stress, political turbulence, and repeated stabilisation cycles, the country has begun a difficult but necessary transition from crisis management to long-term transformation. The launch of the Index of Transparency and Accountability in Pakistan (iTAP) marks an important moment in this journey, not merely because it introduces a new measurement tool, but because it challenges us to confront a deeper and more damaging problem: Pakistan’s distorted self-image.

Nations do not rise on numbers alone. They rise on confidence anchored in reality. And when confidence collapses – when a society internalises an exaggerated sense of failure – economic ambition, institutional reform and collective purpose begin to wither. This is the real risk Pakistan faces today. For years, Pakistan has been locked in a cycle of negativity that goes far beyond healthy criticism or democratic accountability. Our public discourse has increasingly portrayed the state as irredeemably corrupt, institutions as uniformly broken and public service as inherently criminal. This narrative has been repeated so relentlessly that it has begun to shape national psychology. The result is not reform, but paralysis.

Development economics and behavioural science both confirm an uncomfortable truth: low collective self-esteem leads to inaction. When people believe their system is beyond repair, they stop trying to improve it. When cynicism dominates, ambition evaporates. And when a society is repeatedly told it is incapable of success, calls for a higher purpose no longer inspire, they frustrate.

In Pakistan today, for many citizens, the favourite national pastime has become discussing what is wrong with the country. Criticism has ceased to be a means to improvement and has instead become an end in itself. This mindset has been cultivated. Over the past decade, Pakistan witnessed an unprecedented campaign of political rhetoric built on delegitimisation rather than reform. Slogans such as ‘chor’, ‘daku’, ‘beragharak’ etc were weaponised by Imran Khan not merely against political opponents, but against the very idea of the state and its institutions. This strategy may have yielded short-term political mobilisation, but its long-term cost has been devastating.

When every institution is portrayed as criminal, trust collapses. When every public servant is assumed corrupt, morale erodes. When the nation is constantly told it has failed beyond redemption, collective self-esteem is destroyed. Psychologists describe this condition clearly: prolonged negative self-image leads to social depression. Depression produces withdrawal, resentment and cynicism. In such a state, even well-intentioned reform agendas are met with suspicion and mockery.

The irony is painful: a nation of extraordinary resilience, talent and potential has begun to doubt its own worth. This is where the launch of iTAP becomes strategically significant. Unlike many global governance indices that rely exclusively on perception surveys, iTAP takes a more mature, more honest approach: it distinguishes perception from lived experience. And the results are revealing. While 68% of Pakistanis believe bribery is common, only 27% report ever facing a bribe demand personally. While 56% perceive nepotism as widespread, only 24% have experienced it firsthand. Most strikingly, 67% of citizens report never experiencing any malpractice at all in their interactions with public institutions.

The gap between perception and reality is structural. This does not mean Pakistan has no governance problems. It means those problems have been magnified far beyond their actual scale, with serious consequences for national confidence, investment behaviour and reform momentum. For a country seeking economic take-off, this distinction matters enormously. In the modern global economy, perception shapes capital flows as much as balance sheets. When a country is perceived as dysfunctional, investors demand higher risk premiums, financing becomes more expensive; export credibility suffers; projects face delays; and talent seeks opportunity elsewhere.

Perception, therefore, is a macroeconomic variable. No economy can transition from stabilisation to growth while locked in a narrative of permanent failure. This is why URAAN Pakistan begins not with denial, but with diagnosis grounded in evidence. It rejects both false optimism and performative pessimism. It insists on measuring problems accurately, fixing them systematically and restoring confidence responsibly. iTAP is a tool for that mindset shift.

There is a profound difference between accountability and annihilation. Healthy accountability strengthens institutions. Relentless delegitimisation weakens them. When governance challenges are reduced to slogans rather than analysed through systems, reform becomes impossible. Over the years, Pakistan paid a heavy price for this confusion. Public servants became risk-averse. Decision-making slowed. Institutional learning stopped. Cynicism replaced service.

Most dangerously, young Pakistanis absorbed the message that success lies not in building institutions, but in tearing them down rhetorically. This is not how nations develop. The world’s most successful economies – whether in East Asia, Europe or emerging markets – did not grow by convincing themselves they were hopeless. They grew by acknowledging weaknesses in proportion, correcting them with discipline and nurturing national ambition. Pakistan must do the same.

Every Pakistani has personal ambitions: for their children, their careers, their businesses, their futures. But somewhere along the way, we stopped allowing ourselves collective ambition. We became comfortable with small expectations for the country, even while dreaming big for ourselves individually. This contradiction is unsustainable. A nation cannot progress if it believes improvement is impossible. Breaking this cycle does not mean ignoring corruption, inefficiency, or injustice. It means seeing them clearly, not catastrophically. It means shifting from constant condemnation to continuous improvement. iTAP helps initiate this transition by restoring proportion to our national conversation.

URAAN Pakistan represents a deliberate shift in how Pakistan approaches reform: from slogans to systems; from blame to benchmarks; and from perception warfare to performance discipline. Instead of asking, ‘Who is to blame?’, the new question becomes, ‘What works, what doesn’t, and how do we fix it?’ This is how serious states operate. Indices like iTAP allow policymakers to target reforms where they are needed most, while preventing the unnecessary erosion of trust where performance is actually improving. That balance is essential.

Pakistan’s future does not lie in pretending all is well, nor in convincing itself that nothing can be fixed. It lies in cultivating confidence without arrogance and criticism without cynicism. We must accept our weaknesses honestly, but in true proportion. We must correct them with resolve, not self-loathing. And we must once again allow ourselves to believe that Pakistan can aspire to excellence, just as its people aspire to it in their personal lives.

Nations that lose ambition lose direction. Nations that lose confidence lose momentum. Pakistan can afford neither. The launch of iTAP is, therefore, more than a technical exercise. It is a quiet but important assertion that Pakistan is ready to move beyond noise – to govern with evidence, reform with discipline and aspire with confidence. Breaking the cycle of negativity will not happen overnight. But it begins with refusing to confuse criticism with character assassination and reform with ridicule. It begins with telling ourselves the truth. Because a nation that understands itself accurately, neither flatteringly nor cruelly, is a nation ready to rise.

And Pakistan, despite all its challenges, remains a nation capable of far more than it has allowed itself to believe. Pakistan’s future will not be built by denying our weaknesses, nor by exaggerating them. It will be built by seeing them clearly, correcting them steadily and believing – without apology – that this nation can do better. We must retire the habit of talking Pakistan down and revive the ambition to build Pakistan up. When confidence is grounded in truth and purpose replaces cynicism, progress stops being a hope and becomes a choice. And that choice is now ours.

The writer is the federal minister for planning, development, and special initiatives. He tweets/posts @betterpakistan and can be reached at: [email protected]

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.

Originally published in The News