The prime minister must do the needful within the first 100 days and reduce the size of the bureaucracy.
LAHORE: It seems that the PML-N has submitted to the pressures of the powerful bureaucracy by failing to slash the government’s size. The fact remains that while this government has reduced the number of cabinet ministries from 43 to 28, the present count of federal secretaries leading various divisions remains over 38. Can I ask the PML-N higher-ups how the non-development administrative expenditure of the top-heavy bureaucracy can be reduced by just cutting down the number of ministers, while the bureaucracy continues to maintain its size and entail almost the same expenditures? After all, the rampant corruption, flight of capital, deterioration in law and order and economic strangulation of state-owned enterprises could have occurred only by direct involvement and patronisation of the bureaucracy.
The prime minister must do the needful within the first 100 days and reduce the size of the bureaucracy; otherwise, he will never be able to curtail corruption, enforce administrative and financial discipline, ensure tax collection and a culture of accountability within our corruption-infected bureaucracy.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, July 31st, 2013.
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