Daily Times

Good governance can only be provided through a capable, dedicated and effective civil service, which is devoted to serving the people and also act as a ‘steel frame’ that holds the country together. Unfortunately, in Pakistan they became the rulers themselves, contributing hugely to be disintegration of the state through their capricious, arbitrary and arrogant rule.

Addressing civil servants recently, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan asked them to support his government through a “down cycle” over the next two years and to support its “out-of-the-box” policy reforms. He assured them that political interference in the affairs of the civil bureaucracy — where merit is largely ignored in appointments — would end. He vowed to stand by them if they performed diligently and delivered what was needed to raise the stature of Pakistan’s bureaucracy, which was once considered the pride of Asia, to a world class level again.

To quote my article titled ‘Inherent Bad Governance’, published on September 9, 2010, “Evolving at the Federal level, in 1973 members of the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) and the Police Services of Pakistan (PSP) became part of the All Pakistan Unified Grade in their existing posts. “Grade” was changed into “Group” to accommodate all groups of Central Superior Services (CSS) who were non-District Management Group (DMG) (ie from Postal, Railway, Income Tax, etc). Unfortunately, Provincial Civil Services (PCS) and the Provincial Police Service (PPS) who actually provide governance at the grassroots level were kept out of the APUG. The DMG became all powerful by calling all the shots in all promotions and postings. Rabid discrimination by the PSP denies the merit of PPS officers, deserving officers are either side-lined or made to wait for a pro-forma promotion for years till they are about to retire. Senior PPS officers have to serve under the junior PSP without experience or merit. The DMG dominates the lives of thousands of provincial civil servants by criminally denying them their fundamental career rights under the laws of the land. PCS and PPS officers live in fear of the DMG, unable to do anything against their wishes, a fact well known to every government that has come into power, yet this travesty flourishes”.

Recently, a Task Force on Civil Services Reform was constituted by the PM, having eighteen members and a Secretary. Ten have been nominated by name and eight by designation, while the Secretary is yet to be notified. What is shocking is that all the eight officials designated by name belong to the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), while three out of those nominated by name are former ICS or DMG officers. This composition will cause friction and dissent among those in other services who believe the PAS is more interested in consolidating its own power. Will these gentlemen be motivated in approving or initiating reforms in the civil services that could result in curtailment of the powers of their colleagues?

While about 85-90 percent of the 800 or so DMG officers and 1750 PSP officers have tremendous integrity and commitment, 10-15 percent are outright crooks and insufferably arrogant besides. Having become all powerful, they disregard all rules and operate with impunity. They are protected by politicians (during Musharraf’s times by senior Army officials), or anyone else wielding influence within the Establishment. Top bureaucrats like Ahad Cheema, a grade-20 PAS officer and Fawad Hassan Fawad, a BPS-22 officer working as Principal Secretary to former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, are just two cases in point. Thinking of themselves as “untouchables” on account of political patronage and power, according to sources in NAB, they allegedly indulged in wholesale corruption.

Candidates for public service are a part of society; their improvement and that of the service has to go hand in hand with improvement of education and professionalism in all institutions countrywide

Several reforms have been initiated in the Public Service, with only limited success. Historically, the Public Service is a colonial legacy, but the system that was once called the ‘steel frame’ of British-India has been distorted. This started with the reforms initiated by ZA Bhutto in the 1970s.

Unfortunately over the years, politicisation and ethnic biases have destroyed its efficacy. Another major impediment to reform is the increasingly faulty preparation by candidates in the country’s schooling system (including lack of writing and understanding skills and knowledge of geography).Consequently, description for public service posts must be specific and examinations need to respond to those requirements. Rigorous and merit-based selection is the first step, but once recruited, candidates have to gain access to further qualifications during their service and that needs to challenge ethnic, political and maybe even religious biases that recruited officers may have, as well as constant upgrading of their professional skills. It has to be a life-long learning process.

Values like discipline, honesty, national pride, commitment and readiness to adjust to innovation within the service need to be promoted. Candidates for public service are a part of society; their improvement and that of the service has to go hand in hand with improvement of education and professionalism in all institutions countrywide — educational and others.

The arrest of Ahad Cheema drew a sharp reaction from a handful of individuals with vested interests in the all-powerful PAS. Some PAS officers locked down their offices to protest “Cheema’s unlawful arrest”. Instead of condemning this, PML-N members of Punjab Assembly joined the protest and passed a resolution against NAB. The “strikers” threatened and cajoled their PAS colleagues and Punjab Management Services (PMS) officers into joining their illegal protest, however only 21 out of 200 officers joined them, and that too out of fear. About 35 out of 1200 PMS Officers who initially joined the protest opted out later. Can you imagine how badly the fabric of governance would have been damaged if this unholy cabal had been successful?

The fact that there has been no accountability is a measure of their power and influence. The PTI’s battle to depoliticise the bureaucracy is bound to run into problems for a number of reasons. The Provincial Management Service (PMS) officers have already registered their protest that the Task Force does not include a single PMS Officer. They demand that at least two PMS officers from each province be included in the task force. The PM’s Task Force must have both the service groups represented, only proportional representation can ensure transparent governance. I will not hesitate to acknowledge the vast majority of honest, talented and patriotic DMG officers who serve the country diligently.

The writer is a defence and security analyst

Published in Daily Times, September 25^th 2018.