‘KINDLY adjust’ is a peculiarly South Asian expression. It means tolerating inconvenience or accommodating what is not quite right. While courteous, it captures the relationship between citizens and the institutions that govern them. When electricity disappears, arrange a generator. When water is scarce or unsafe, call a tanker and install a filter. When schools, hospitals, roads or air disappoint, pay privately, reroute, stay indoors or stretch the household budget. In other words: kindly adjust.

Pakistanis have become exceptionally good at adjusting. What we proudly call resilience is often the ability of citizens to compensate privately for the failure of public institutions. Those with money buy electricity, water, education, healthcare, security and protection. The middle class stretches to follow; the poor endure or leave for work abroad.

But there are limits to adjustment. The recent deaths of newborn babies in a fire at Islamabad’s premier government hospital brought this home with unbearable force. When something as fundamental as the safety of infants in a public hospital cannot be assured, institutional failure is no longer an inconvenience. It becomes a matter of life and death.

Pakistan’s problem is that government too often mistakes programmes, budgets, authorities and committees for real delivery and measurable achievement. Education is counted in schools, teachers and budgets, not whether children learn. Healthcare is counted in hospitals and beds, not outcomes and safety. Environmental policy represents aspiration while citizens face unreliable supply, polluted air and untreated waste.

The first adjustment, therefore, must come from government itself. Public institutions should be judged by outcomes. Every major public service should publish standards: learning outcomes, hospital safety, healthcare availability, affordable and reliable utilities including safe municipal water and garbage collection. Performance against them should be public. When government fails, citizens pay through illness, lost productivity and private expenditure.

Resilience has become an excuse for poor governance.

Accountability must match authority. Pakistan has many officials empowered to approve, regulate, inspect and prohibit, but too few who are clearly answerable when things go wrong. Each disaster is followed by an inquiry, suspension or committee, yet real learning remains elusive. Serious failures should automatically trigger independent investigation. Regulators need professional leadership. Senior appointments should carry measurable objectives. Authority without consequence encourages indifference.

Government also needs capability. Car­eer civil servants remain indispensable, but a modern economy needs specialisation, lateral entry, merit-based appointments, fixed tenures and measurable objectives. The aim is to combine institutional experience with specialist knowledge and managerial competence. Government must also simplify procedures, reduce overlapping respo­nsibilities and give managers enough auth­ority to be accountable. Pakistan needs better people in government, and systems in which good people can perform.

The state must also reconsider what it tries to do. Pakistan has a government that is simultaneously too large and too weak: involved in too many activities, yet frequently unable to deliver basics. It should do fewer essential things much better at lower cost, which would also reduce the burden of taxes on the narrow formal sector.

Another adjustment is to take government closer to citizens. Pakistan dev­olved authority to the provinces under the 18th Amend­m­ent but largely fai­led to complete the journey. Neighb­ou­rh­ood water, garb­age collection, primary schools, local roads and district hospitals require empowered elected local governments with pred­ictable resources and clear accountability.

None of this absolves citizens or businesses of responsibility. Citizens cannot demand good services while evading taxes, stealing electricity, encroaching on public land, bribing officials or ignoring regulations. Businesses cannot demand predictable policy while seeking exemptions, protection and preferential treatment. Citizens should pay fair taxes and obey reasonable laws. Businesses should compete rather than seek privilege.

For too long we have treated people’s capacity to cope as a national virtue. But resilience has become an excuse for poor governance. As Pakistan approaches its 80th year, citizens should not be expected to continue to adjust to shortages, inflation, insecurity, poor services, weak regulation and repeated economic crises. The state must deliver through declared standards, competent management and strong accountability.The elite who can afford to bypass state services should join the masses in demanding delivery.

The writer is a former CEO of Unilever Pakistan and of the Pakistan Business Council.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2026