The problem with bureaucrats loyal to a party is that they will carry out an illegal order to please their boss
ISLAMABAD: Recently, a retired federal secretary has said that our bureaucrats are divided into three groups. He said some are loyal to the PML-N, some to the PPP and the rest are neutral. However, the last category, he said comprised a mere five per cent of the total.
The problem with having bureaucrats who are loyal to a particular party and not their job and oath is that they will carry out an illegal order to please their political bosses. However, this was not always the case. For a long time, after the creation of Pakistan our civil servants were working well.
Files would be moved according to rules and merits of a particular case. As the file travelled upwards in the hierarchy, no senior official — up to the level of the secretary — could dare to change the observation. The minister in charge would also follow the rule because he, too, was afraid of the audit that would happen later.
It was during the days of Nawab Amir Mohammad Khan of Kalabagh as the governor of West Pakistan that politicians and ministers began interfering in the work of bureaucrats. The trouble started when then chief secretary Khurshid Ahmed refused to appoint a certain person as the DC of Mianwali. Since the governor was a friend of Ayub Khan’s and the chief secretary was also a principled officer, the latter was transferred, and that began the decline of the power of the bureaucrat.
However, the greatest harm to the Civil Service was done by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He once dismissed a federal secretary by a phone call when the latter was presiding over a meeting of his department. Since that day the fate of civil servants depended on the wishes and pleasure of the minister concerned. No bureaucrat dare disobey a minister. Thus started the death of merit and — from the point of view at least of the bureaucrats — they had to side with the political party in power.
Of course, this has also meant the death of good governance and till such time the bureaucracy is depoliticised and not interfered with we will have a system that does not deliver services and amenities to citizens.
Dr Nisar A Kayani
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2014.
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