WHILE visiting federal or provincial secretariats, one can feel the agony and misery of senior officials having a lot of research and practical experience under their belt, but being unable to put it to good use. They are often found heading ministries and departments that have no use of the technical knowledge they have acquired over the years.

This happens because once they have spent some time understanding a subject and its technical aspects along with the currents and cross-currents of the ground reality, they are transferred to some other ministry. Government ministers also get changed either due to change of government or strategy or preferences.

Most of the current politicians do not believe in idealism and critical thinking. Such people only care about their personal ego and always try to improve their rating on social media.

In such a scenario, those who run important ministries seem least interested in generating fresh ideas and theories for the betterment of the country and its teeming millions.

They prefer to pass on files and minis- terial notes from lower staff to the higher like a post office without adding any intellectual input to the original draft. They do this to save their skin and their image on social media.

People sitting at the helm of affairs know little about government functions, but pretend as if they have command on every field of life, causing hurdles in routine functions.

Decisions taken about a nation’s life and death without any consideration of the ground realities tend to backfire, and such situations may only be handled and controlled by people who are truly capable, competent and committed.

The knowledgeable people prefer to keep themselves busy with routine work and all this while they keep waiting to get retired with name and reputation intact rather than facing the negative consequences of being on the wrong side of someone mighty. The situation needs urgent attention before it gets too late.

Syed Masood Hasan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2023