The Oxford and California-educated Bhutto had entered politics as an apprentice at a Karachi law firm and thanks to his knowledge of history and international relations he soon became noted for his brilliance. He could see a golden future for himself. He joined the cabinet of President Iskandar Mirza and later the army dictator, Ayub Khan, in 1958, and soon gained an understanding of the intricacies of governance.

He also learnt a golden lesson: in order to perpetuate one’s rule one has to have a docile bureaucracy to appease those segments of the population that matter, and extend political control over institutions. Sometimes this is achieved by purging the civil service of unfriendly elements; more often by direct recruitments at senior positions, which then allow decisions to be implemented.

Pakistan inherited the bureaucracy of civil services from the colonial rulers. It was based on the Indian Civil Service (ICS) which virtually ruled India and its remnants are still the backbone of that country. The English rulers had very clear categories in their educational system. The first level was to prepare an army of clerks (baboos) and patwaris. The objective of creating this class was to provide manpower to run the lower administrative system which would, in turn, feed the upper hierarchy of administration with broader tasks.

The next echelon of the administrative setup was a higher class of administrators who had the responsibility of maintaining law and order, ensuring implementation of government policies and supporting other government functionaries in enforcing the government’s writ. The wedge between Hindus and Muslims grew on this point. It may be recalled that it was during the colonial era that the Muslim clergy wanted to keep away from English education; it was Sir Syed who made the Muslims understand the situation and became instrumental in bringing the Muslim youth to modern education.

At the time of Independence a number of ICS officers migrated to Pakistan and were placed in their respective positions. With the inception of Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) on ICS pattern, the number of new CSP officers recruited and trained every year remained around 25 till 1968, which was enough to meet the requirements of an emerging country.

With time, however, there grew a lot of confusion between the provinces and the federal government. The bureaucracy was not accountable to the people or to the elected representatives which made it a dangerous institution. The short-lived governments in the early years of Pakistan and the attainment of personal ends under political banners made the bureaucracy an uncontrolled bull.

Ayub Khan thought that a change in the structural form of the administration would improve the performance of the government. For this purpose he appointed a Pay and Service Commission on August 13, 1959, under the chairmanship of Justice A R Cornelius, which presented its report on June 1, 1962, though it was not made public until 1969. Justice Cornelius, known for his anti-CSP views, had recommended, among other things, that the administrative system should be revamped according to Pakistani demands. This was a clear message to the civil service that attempts were on to undermine their position.

Ayub Khan did not wait for the recommendations. He had a firm belief that the civil service was pushing the country into pandemonium. Through various acts he put pressure on civil servants to behave. It began with forcibly retiring some 13 officers after blaming them of corruption in the second year of his tenure; he then took another step to degrade the civil service by appointing some 272 army officers in various vital civil service positions. This brought the civil service on it toes and the bureaucracy decided that the CSP cadre could survive by reaching a compromise on some points. This change in thinking brought an end to their stand off with the military government and they decided to cooperate with it in implementing its programmes.

Yahya Khan was a witness to all this. He took over on March 25, 1969, and on December 2, he promulgated Martial Law order No 58, by which 303 civil service officers (popularly known as three-naught-three), many of them belonging to the senior cadre, were purged from the service, blamed for corruption and misconduct. This was a serious blow to the civil service and they began working on re-evaluating their position to avoid similar recurrence. Many of these forcibly-retired officers were said to have links with politicians as under Ayub Khan’s various projects they became close to the politicians who had been allowed to return to politics.

Bhutto had seen all this and planned to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors.

shaikhaziz38@gmail.com