Daily Times

Generally, corporate bodies, banking institutions, business houses and private-sector enterprises seek the right man for the right job. In most advertisements related to job vacancies, certain qualifications and experiences are specifically mentioned. If for example, there is a need for an accountant, a person with knowledge of accountancy, would be sought. Likewise, a company hiring a marketing expert will not appoint a doctor.

Where fresh graduates are recruited, they are made to undergo on-job training before being assigned independent posts. Having spoken about the quality of the recruitment procedure in the earlier part, it is now vital to understand its consequences. Since those being examined are in a particular mode, they might be able to trick the examiners about their capabilities, which can only be tested with on-spot situational reviews over a longer duration of time.

Raising the upper age limit means that opportunity to join civil services is available to professionals and those already on a career path. The attraction of civil services is such that persons serving in senior grades outside CSS cadre are happy at being reverted to grade 17 under the CSS umbrella. Being mature and experienced, such persons are not willing to be treated like youngsters or to be disciplined and lectured in subjects they may already have excelled in. This creates a general environment of unrest in the process of subsequent training. On the contrary, it is widely believed that the younger lot, which has yet to embark upon a career, is more pliable and receptive; making things easier for trainers as can be observed in the military academies. It is easier to write on a clean slate than having to clear up and rewrite on a messy one.

The training process should be over at least eighteen months with the candidates being made to learn the complete ins and outs of their parent departments

The concept of the quota system was introduced in 1948 by Liaquat Ali Khan to induct Bengalis into services. This was later refined to allow 20 per cent seats on merit in the CSS exams in 1949. Undoubtedly, a very noble move because it allows residents of the less developed areas to come at par with those living in the more privileged localities and those who have access to better educational institutions and more exposure to the civilised world. However, reducing selection on merit from 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent effective from February 12, 2007, vide Estt. Div. OM No. 4/10/2006-R-2, dated February 12, 2007, as a politically motivated measure was definitely uncalled for.

The world today is that of specialisation in every field. Although every single doctor earns an MBBS degree, a general practitioner would refrain from prescribing medicine to a heart patient. Similarly, an FRCPS qualified gynaecologist would never dare to perform open-heart surgery.

Many government departments, both at federal and provincial levels, demand an understanding of some basic things peculiar to their working. A simple example would be that of foreign service where international relations, world history, political science, command over a foreign language, especially English, social etiquettes, etc., should be the prerequisites. How can a 32-years-old lecturer of, say, chemistry, teaching in a college in rural Punjab in a mixed Seraiki-Punjabi accent and with a limited world view other than what he has memorised to clear the general knowledge CSS paper, be expected to handle sensitive international desks in the foreign office?

One could argue that after CTP, candidates are supposed to undergo specialised training but would, let’s say one-year, training be sufficient to create the perfect diplomat Pakistan could be proud of? Same is true for departments requiring, for example, economics as a core subject, or experts in public transport and communication or degree holders in business and accounting, public health specialists the health sector. As Otto von Bismarck aptly stated, “With bad laws and good civil servants it’s still possible to govern. But with bad civil servants, even the best laws can’t help.”

In order to straighten up things, bring about sensibility in hiring and improve the quality of civil servants, recruitment through Federal/Provincial Public Service Commission should be split based on each occupational group. Rather than wasting taxpayers’ precious money on employing/training a large group of ecstatic and disgruntled people for serving “lucrative” or “undesirable” departments or attempting to integrate them as a unified force, exams should be held for applicants for a specific group. Thus, a person willing to serve in the postal group should sit an exam meant for it. Likewise, those who have the basic qualifications for working in various revenue departments should appear in an exam specially designed for such services. Those specialising in agriculture, for example, could be hired through these commissions to work in this sector, rather than placing an electrical engineer there, who possesses no knowledge on this subject.

One learns not so much from textbooks as one does by involvement. The training process should be over at least eighteen months with the candidates being made to learn the complete ins and outs of their parent departments. They should go through the most fundamental aspects of what is eventually expected out of them. The rigours of training should be meant to make them competent at their work; to instil confidence; to allow them to have cordial relations with their colleagues; to promote good grooming in etiquette and behaviour and inculcate a thorough understanding of different problems that members of the public are likely to face and they are supposed to resolve. The catchphrase should be “Facilitation without fear or favour.”

When candidates earnestly aspire for a particular job, they will definitely put their hearts and souls to achieve success in that field. Instead of discriminating services based on which is elitist and which is common-placed, promotions should be harmonious and purely on merit so that, for example, medical professionals, having put in many years of hard work, are not distressed and compelled to become district administrators, auditors, policemen or revenue collectors. There does not appear to be any plausible reason for why certain services have better promotion standards while in others, officials retire in junior cadres. There is an urgent need to bring about equity and rationality in the entire service structure otherwise as Winston Churchill said, “After a time, civil servants tend to become no longer servants and no longer civil.” It is high time that this dismal image of civil servants is replaced with a more sombre and humanistic one.

Concluded

The writer is a lawyer, author and an adjunct faculty member at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)