Daily Times

Perhaps, the most predictable outcome of the confrontation and settlement with TLP was a reshuffling of the police high command. And the chief minister of Punjab, the most crucial province in the federation, did not disappoint. So everybody is supposed to assume once again that the changes made this time will deliver the kind of results that were promised when Usman Buzdar became the chief executive of Punjab. For the government to be stuck in this cycle in what is after all the fourth year of the administration is now beginning to raise eyebrows. Punjab’s police chief alone has been changed at least a half-dozen times, and those immediately under him many times more.

The same is true for other important branches of the civil service. And when career bureaucrats can be recycled at the drop of a hat, and their career reports affected accordingly, it is no surprise that morale has dropped substantially, and the service stands more or less paralysed. This trend is indicative of an indecisive if not inconvenient leadership that is still learning the ropes as if these were its first few days in office. This situation is a far cry from the kind of reforms PTI talked about before it took over.

With a very dissatisfied public and an increasingly unhappy civil service, the CM office will feel more heat than before. For some reason, the kind of standards that this office wants to see in the system doesn’t seem to apply to itself. And the chief minister continues to sit safely in his seat even though practically, no original objective has been met and much of what was very bad has actually become even worse. But this, too, is part of the same trend. And even when the rot is identified, it is not removed.

It can only be hoped, for the good of the system if nothing else, that this was the last round of needless reshuffling anywhere in the civil service. And if the axe is needed again, let it swing in the office responsible for its smooth functioning. *