Mr Prime Minister, in continuation of my tri-series open letter, this second letter is meant to point out the flaws of your government’s political and bureaucratic decisions. It is hoped that you will carefully adhere to the suggestions on the issues that I am about to highlight for the stability of your regime. After coming in power for the first time at the national level, PTI was bound to have some teething problems in its first few months. But what made the party look like a bunch of lightweight amateurs was its own doing. Placing Usman Buzdar as Chief Minister Punjab, one of the most lightweight public representatives on this side of the Suez Canal, reportedly, on the recommendation of someone who had no inkling of politics was a political blunder of gigantic proportions. It should not be made an ego point. Being the new kid on the block in the power corridors, PTI did not have a lot of seasoned politicians, especially who had the experience of dealing with the bureaucracy. But the few that it has, have been sidelined. Shafqat Mehmood could have done a great job as the Interior Minister, instead he was handed the education ministry when the subject has already been transferred to the provinces, and there is not much to do in the domain at federal level. There could be many other such examples of misplaced political appointments, but what has hurt the PTI government even more is its poor handling of bureaucracy. Mr Prime Minister you have said it yourself that without the cooperation of bureaucracy, no government will be able to bring meaningful change. Then why did you royally mess up the handling of the civil services? When PML-N government took over, they brought some very experienced bureaucrats to key positions who gave them a dream start. A man known for his ability and integrity, Nasir Khosa, being the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, was flawless in handling state affairs and could have very well run the whole system without ever bothering Nawaz Sharif because of his rich experience and maturity. The pool for making federal secretaries should be widened to include all officers of various CSS cadres in grade 22. Their years of service, diversity of experience, educational levels and suitability must be gauged by a committee comprising of people like Syed Fakhar Imam, Shafqat Mehmood and Tasneem Noorani His deputy, Fawad Hasan Fawad, was one of the sharpest civil servants, though he proved to be too smart for his own good once Khosa decided it was time to leave the scene, in order to save his impeccable record and reputation, and left Fawad unsupervised. Similarly, very able and experienced bureaucrats, recommended by Khosa, at other key positions gave the PML-N government stability and substance, long before the likes of Ishaq Dar hijacked the system with Fawad’s collaboration and rocked the boat. PTI government, on the other hand, has chosen junior officers not known as star performers for key positions. Azam Khan may be a decent man but he’s struggling as principal secretary. Keeping in mind that it was your first time in a public office, Mr Prime Minister, wouldn’t it have been wiser to choose a more seasoned bureaucrat who would have known how to work things seamlessly and help choose the right people for other key positions in the bureaucracy? A more experienced principal secretary would have also, definitely, helped save your government the embarrassment of making unwarranted and premature postings of Inspector Generals and other senior officials that became large scandals. Equally importantly, it would have protected the government from looking like a bunch of immatures by dragging a High-Powered Selection Board (HPSB) for weeks though it’s normally completed the same day. Reformation of civil services will be an important task for your government. It is an area where the PML-N government failed miserably. The reform committee headed by Ahsan Iqbal became a laughing stock for the nation after wasting everybody’s time for the last government’s entire five years. You have put together the right group of people with Dr Ishrat Hussain being an integral part, and the creation of a National Executive Service is the way to go, but it will take time. In short-term, you need to appoint the best of the best as federal secretaries, but that is definitely not the case now. Most of the federal secretaries are from the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) and it seems many seniors have been ignored given that the principal secretary himself is a junior belonging to the 17th Common Training Program (CTP). Moreover, the second highest number of federal secretaries after PAS are from the Office Management Group (OMG). This is a cadre which used to be the last choice for those appearing for CSS examinations until the cadre itself was abolished because the intake was quite abysmal. It got revived years later owing to the shortage of PAS officers willing to work in secretariats. That resulted in a strange reversal, where junior OMG officers were promoted to higher grades, many years earlier than the members of prestigious cadres such as the PAS, Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) and Foreign Service of Pakistan (FSP). Many of them currently serve as federal secretaries though they aren’t even to be at the joint secretary level. This has resulted in an overall degradation of bureaucracy at higher levels. To rectify the situation in the short-term, the pool for making federal secretaries should be widened to include all officers of various CSS cadres in grade 22. Their years of service, diversity of experience, educational levels and suitability must be gauged by a committee comprising of people like Syed Fakhar Imam, Shafqat Mehmood and Tasneem Noorani, which should shortlist and interview officers for each position. This would ensure better quality at the top compared to the present lot, which is pedestrian at best. Lastly, Mr Prime Minister, you will agree that lack of decision-making can be as damaging for a government as incompetence and corruption. In the current scenario, accountability has become the main media theme, and most bureaucrats have stopped taking decisions. This has paralysed governance and nothing much is being accomplished. We need to do the opposite. That is: more work and less noise about accountability, to be precise. The corrupt should be nabbed. But this has to be done through efficient and noiseless investigations, rather than media trials and half-baked cases that cannot stand the scrutiny of the judiciary. The make or break of your government does not only depend on the quality of governance, but also on the conduct of your foreign policy. But that is a subject I will discuss in the next and last of this tri-series open letter. To be continued The writer is a diplomatic correspondent, at Daily Times. He can be reached at hassankhan440@gmail.com and tweets @mhassankhan06 Published in Daily Times, December 1st 2018.