Daily Times

The Sahiwal incident is a clear reflection of a lack of professionalism, indifference, and callousness of the Punjab Police and CTD. However, these traits cannot only be attributed to these two institutions, their prevalence in almost all the institutions, with the exception of a few, is a common feature in Pakistan. As the Sahiwal incident, on account of its underlying brutality, got reported on electronic and social media, it quickly captured the attention of the government and the concerned offices, who are now trying to address the issue because of the immense pressure from the civil society and the media. Nonetheless, even if the government achieves success in addressing the issue and brings the culprits to book, the actual issue will still remain unresolved.

The actual issue is to bring a change in the attitude of the officials working in various public sector institutions in Pakistan. No doubt, the police is often seriously criticised for its negligence and brutality, but many other public sector institutions are no better. A similar attitude of lack of professionalism, indifference to responsibilities, and callousness prevails in those institutions as well, and is equally prevalent among both the officials of higher and lower cadres. A commonly observed phenomenon is the officials’ careless attitude towards the people who go to these offices to get their issues resolved. The smooth and speedy functioning of a task in a public sector institution in Pakistan is a dream.

It is hoped that the new government will fulfil its promise of making Pakistan a welfare state. For this, it must take every possible step to ensure the implementation of professionalism in all the institutions working in the country. The quicker the government takes steps in this regard, the better it is for its own self as well as for the country

There are many reasons for this. The most important ones are lack of professional attitude, no sense of professional responsibilities, and a sense of being unaccountable. It is often seen that the people working in various public sector institutions take pride in showing an indifferent and arrogant attitude, and exhibit it as an act of so-called bravery. Their indifferent attitude clearly reveals that they think of themselves as unaccountable. Even if they take a good decision or action to address the issues of the people, they show as if they are doing it out of compassion, and not as their official responsibility. That is why, when an honest officer delivers positively to the people, he is often highly praised. It is thought that he is doing something extraordinary. Whereas, the actual reality is that he is doing his job professionally, and this is what he is supposed to do as an office-bearer and is paid for this by the government.

A recent tradition set in the past few years is that when an incident is reported on electronic and social media and hence captures public attention, a lot of concern is shown by the officials to address the issue. Whereas, there are thousands of issues, that remain unreported on media, keep lying in the cold storage in public offices, and hence remain unnoticed and unresolved. The people keep visiting the offices, requesting the concerning officials to pay considerate attention to their issues, but such issues and files either take a long time to get resolved or keep waiting for their turn.

A state can never become a welfare state unless and until her offices and officials start performing their duties professionally. A country flourishes when all of her institutions pay a welcoming attitude to the peoples’ concerns and issues and resolve them on merit. It is hoped that the new government will fulfil its promise of making Pakistan a welfare state. For this, it must take every possible step to ensure the implementation of professionalism in all the institutions working in the country. The quicker the government takes steps in this regard, the better it is for its own self as well as for the country.

The author is an academic

Published in Daily Times, January 29^th 2019.