A little respect
SOMEONE said that the “bureaucracy is the epoxy that greases the wheels of progress”, while a detractor said the “bureaucracy destroys initiative….”
While the first quotation reflects how the British perceived the bureaucracy in this country, the latter quotation reflects how subsequent governments in Pakistan have been viewing it. Ever since the British left, we have been battering and moulding our bureaucracy to Pakistani requirements, which in essence has been to make it subservient to the rulers, whether military or civil.
The phrase ‘remnant of the colonial past’ was used conveniently to ‘reform’ the bureaucracy to make it a notch more subservient, conveniently ignoring all the other ‘heritage of the Raj’, like the systems and traditions of the Pakistan Army. Even criminal and civil laws have mainly stayed the same, as left by the British.
The bureaucracy is depressed, scared and directionless.
Bureaucracy bashing started with Ayub Khan firing 303 senior officers, followed by Yahya Khan’s dismissal of 1,300 officers; the withdrawal of constitutional guarantees by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto; his administrative reforms of 1972 followed by numerous other commissions to ‘reform’ the bureaucracy.
The final cut was the devolution reforms of Pervez Musharraf, which made the district administration, that touches the lives of 70pc of the population, unrecognisable. Twelve years later, the public still does not know what each of the plethora of new posts created in the name of devolution in the police and civil administration, is supposed to do.
With each ‘reform’ in the past 67 years, the bureaucracy slumped one notch lower in its delivery. The rulers, to make up for the decline, started using newspaper and TV ads to pretend there was good governance. The more delivery declines, the greater the frequency of ads.
It is easy to condemn the bureaucracy, but what should it be replaced with? To hire or post inappropriate civil servants, based on political loyalty, is the done thing, but when delivery declines, the bureaucracy and not the ruler is blamed. The removal of the IG Sindh, after a two-month tenure, for reportedly not signing a Rs8 billion procurement contract, is an indicator of the priorities of the rulers.
Posts in scores of crucial institutions are lying vacant because the government can’t find competent executives who are personally loyal also. The present rulers are reported to have said that the quality of bureaucracy has declined seriously since they were in power last, and they can’t figure out why.
The writ of the state is at an abysmal low because the bureaucracy is depressed, scared and directionless.
They are depressed because there are no postings and promotions on merit. It is who you know in the political hierarchy or whom you go to, to offer your ‘services’ that gets you postings and promotions.
Civil servants are scared because the courts have been summoning them on a regular basis. The criticism from the courts is reported in real time on TV. So without trial or charge, they often find themselves ‘convicted’.
A classic example was the fate of one of the most highly regarded civil servants, Kamran Lashari, for allowing a McDonalds in a park of Islamabad in violation of the capital’s master plan. While the eatery continues to thrive at the same location, his illustrious career was cut short. The current digging up of the capital, in violation of the master plan, is apparently going unnoticed by the courts.
In the process, the system has made sure that young civil servants should not have any role models. The civil servants are directionless because their own internal mechanism of command and control has been annihilated. The establishment secretary, who used to be the ‘mai-bap’ of the bureaucracy, is now a post office. All decisions are taken above him or through manipulation (you have to get a requisition from a minister to be posted). At the provincial level the chief secretary was the boss. In one recent case, I know that a chief secretary was unable to get an officer of his choice even as his staff officer.
So what can you expect from a depressed, scared and directionless bureaucracy? Absolutely nothing. This exactly is what we are getting.
As a solution, yet another round of reforms will not work. All that is required is to restore the respect and status of civil servants, rather than claim victory for bashing them. The powers and role of the heads of all departments and ministries, including the establishment secretary and chief secretaries, should be restored.
Once civil servants’ confidence and self-respect are restored and things again start happening on merit, the bureaucracy will start delivering and those who don’t should be held accountable, according to a transparent system of evaluation.
If nothing else, a subservient bureaucracy will run the country and also the government in power, into the ground.
The writer is a former federal secretary interior.
Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2014